JACKSONVILLE Fla. -- Fourth grade teacher Christopher Bacca is now behind bars, his job in jeopardy as he's accused of multiple sex crimes with a child, but parents say he should have lost his job long ago.
Mother, Dimple Smith was surprised to find out the school system didn't fire him the first time he was investigated by DCF.
"You trust the school system and the school boards to basically protect children once you leave them in their care," she said. "It's very frustrating."
According to Bacca's personnel file obtained by Action News, he has a history of inappropriate relationships with kids. In 2009, DCF discovered that he was sleeping in the same bed as a child.
"That would be a red flag right away," said Smith.
But according to DCF, that wasn't enough to kick Bacca out of the classroom, but why?
"When you have an adult who wants to sleep over with a child is it disturbing, yes is it inappropriate yes, it's not illegal though," said John Harrell, with DCF.
Still, moms like Smith believe the school district ignored important warning signs.
"It's completely inappropriate for an adult to be sleeping with a child completely," said Smith.
So we took that concern to a local employment attorney Tad Delegal. He says Duval Public Schools followed protocol by removing Bacca from the classroom for three months.The public school system had no authority to fire Bacca.
"There was no evidence of any specific violation of any rule there's no evidence of any actual sexual misconduct or abuse of a child based on that there were no means by which they could have terminated his employment," said Delegal.
For moms like Smith, that's unacceptable. She says it's just too easy for alleged abusers like Bacca to slip through the cracks here in Florida.
"The lawmakers need to review some of what their putting into place because it's definitely not protecting the public."
