JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- Prosecutors are building their case against the 2012 Teacher of the Year at Windy Hill Elementary. Christopher Bacca is accused of sexually abusing a little boy. Action News has learned that the victim's family has hired an attorney.
"We want to make sure that this person is prosecuted to the very fullest extent of the law," says A. Wellington Barlow.
Barlow tells Action News that the victim was also a student in Bacca's class at Windy Hill. According to police, Bacca sexually abused the child on several occasions, at Bacca's apartment.
Barlow says that the boy's family had a close relationship with Bacca.
"She (the boy's mother) trusted and relied on him and she found out it was just a house of cards and everything fell apart once the investigation took place," says Barlow.
He adds that Bacca told her a lot of lies, "lies about where her son was being taken, lies about what they were doing; so she's completely devastated as any mother would be."
Barlow is concerned that the sexual abuse could have been avoided. In 2009, Bacca was investigated for sleeping in the same bed as a child. At the time, Bacca was a teacher at Long Branch Elementary. The child said nothing sexual happened and no criminal charges were filed. But an investigator with the Department of Children and Families recommended that Bacca be moved to a less vulnerable student population. He was transferred to Windy Hill Elementary. The Duval County School Board has ordered a review into how the situation was handled.
"This man is going to be held accountable so that other families and children can be protected from future situations just like these," says Barlow.
Bacca is charged with multiple felonies including three counts of sexual battery on a child under the age of 12 and three counts of lewd and lascivious behavior. He's in the Duval County Jail on no bond and is expected back in court on Wednesday.
