MENTOR, Ohio — While U.S. Senator Bernie Moreno says he is "revolted" to learn the 15-year-old arrested on child pornography charges may have been allowed back onto Mentor Public School property, the district says that's false.
RELATED: Mentor teen arrested on child porn charges
The city said the 15-year-old was taken into custody on Oct. 17 after a month-long investigation.
He has been charged with 36 felony counts, including pandering sexually oriented material involving a minor.
He has since been released on a $100,00 bond and sent home with a GPS monitor.
Days later, Senator Moreno sent Mentor Board of Education President Maggie Cook a letter expressing his frustration over the potential of this teen returning to the classroom.
"You are a mother yourself, who sent your own children to Mentor High School, I cannot imagine how you could entertain the prospect of your children attending school with an alleged criminal. How, as Mentor Board President could you let this happen? This is absolutely unacceptable," Senator Moreno wrote on Oct. 24.
To read his full letter, click here.
On Monday, the school board held a special meeting that consisted solely of an executive session that lasted an hour and a half before adjournment.
Mentor Public Schools Superintendent Craig Heath said that the closed-door meeting was meant to allow board members to ask questions about what information can be disclosed.
Heath believes the district is in a good place coming out of that meeting.
"Obviously, last week, we were made aware of a situation with one of our students. We worked in collaboration with the Mentor Police Department on the matter," Heath told me following the executive session. "We can confirm at this point that the student was arrested. We can also confirm that the student has not been on our campus since the arrest and will not be returning campus. He is no longer a student in Mentor Schools."
I asked how the district is confident that the student has not returned to school.
"I can’t comment specifically because it’s a part of the juvenile court system right now, but we can assure our families that, that student has not been on our campus," Heath said.
When we asked Heath whether the district had expelled the teen in question, all he said was, "He is withdrawn from the school district."
Heath said the district is under strict limitations as to what it can share.
"We don't know a lot about this investigation ourselves because this is a Mentor Police Department investigation. This isn't a school investigation. There were no tie-ins to the school except for a student happened to be on our school property as one of our students at that point in time. We can assure our families that their students are safe coming to school," Heath said.
I also asked Heath if the district is aware of any victims who are Mentor Public School students.
"That’s been the interesting part with all of this. We don’t know a lot about this investigation at all. We don’t even know all the names of the victims at this point. We’ve had some conversations with students’ families that have come forward with their own information for us, and we’ve worked with those families to put in supportive measures for their students moving forward," he said. "We have no knowledge of even who the victims are."
Heath did confirm two families have come forward with information, but again, he couldn't say whether those were victims.
We'll continue to Follow Through as this case develops.
