Lakeland, FLORIDA

Dec 21, 2007 - John Stelmack, 60, the principal at Scott Lake Elementary School, was arrested and charged with five counts of possession of child pornography.

Detectives started their investigation on Wednesday after talking with officials at the Polk County school district. No other details available. According to MyFox, Tampa Bay, investigators say Stelmack's arrest is the result of an ongoing investigation involving the Polk County School Board and the Polk County Sheriff's Office.

Tampa Tribune:

Scott Lake Elementary Principal John Stelmack, 60, was suspended with pay a week ago today after the Polk County School District began an investigation into his conduct around students, Judd said.

District officials searched his office at the Lakeland school. They found a black briefcase with photos of naked young women positioned to look like children. The district then contacted the sheriff's office.

Four copies of a picture of naked women with the head a 10-year-old girl superimposed on the images were found inside, [Sheriff Grady] Judd said. The girl was a 11-year-old Scott Lake Elementary student.

Detectives are serving a search warrant at his home, and further charges could be filed if anything is found. Stelmack is married and has two adult children.

"The photographs that Stelmack manipulated into child pornography are graphic and repulsive," Sheriff Grady Judd said in a press release about the arrest. "To think that a school principal, someone who is entrusted with the safety and well-being of hundreds of school children, would do something like this is incomprehensible."

Stelmack has been placed on administrative leave with pay.

Before coming to Scott Lake, Stelmack was principal in a Buffalo school from 1999 to 2004 and a principal in the Olean City, N.Y., school district. He taught for 13 years in the Elmira City School District in New York.

Polk County Sheriff's Department (Bartow, FL) Press Release (Dated Dec 21, 2007 )
Their mug shot of Stelmack.

Isaac Tillis, 29, a Bartow High School math teacher, was arrested on Dec 19 for soliciting sex from a student for an improved grade. The student was wearing a wire. LINK
Bartow, FL - Wikipedia entry.

ARRESTED AGAIN Jan 10, 2008 - Selmack was arrested again on additional child pornography charges. Today's arrest resulted from computer forensics and charges are 12 counts of child pornography.

SUSPENDED WITHOUT PAY Jan 14 - The Polk County Democrat: Stelmack was suspended without pay at Tuesday's Polk County School Board meeting. Stelmack had previously been suspended with pay due to inappropriate behavior toward certain students, including excessive hugging.

When he was hired, he came up clean. After his arrest, the school superintendent said, she began to hear a different story.

Stelmack had resigned from his old school due to parent complaints after a bus driver was arrested on child pornography charges. The parents had been upset that Stelmack had not taken any action before the arrest, despite a series of complaints against the bus driver.