Crime Fix with Angenette Levy - Married Florida Teacher Had Sex with Boy in Classroom: Cops

Episode Date: July 1, 2025

Sarah Jacas faces a handful of felony charges after a teenage boy told detectives she locked the door to her classroom and told him how to have sex with her. The alleged crime took place at a middle school in Orange County, Florida in 2023. The boy was 14 at the time and is now 16. He told detectives they spoke in code on a "Bob the Builder" Instagram account. Law&Crime's Angenette Levy looks at the disturbing case in this episode of Crime Fix — a daily show covering the biggest stories in crime.PLEASE SUPPORT THE SHOW: Right now, you can get an exclusive 20% off your first order at https://thrivecausemetics.com/crimefixHost:Angenette Levy  https://twitter.com/Angenette5Guest: Dan Schorr https://x.com/danschorrProducer:Jordan ChaconCRIME FIX PRODUCTION:Head of Social Media, YouTube - Bobby SzokeSocial Media Management - Vanessa BeinVideo Editing - Daniel CamachoGuest Booking - Alyssa Fisher & Diane KayeSTAY UP-TO-DATE WITH THE LAW&CRIME NETWORK:Watch Law&Crime Network on YouTubeTV: https://bit.ly/3td2e3yWhere To Watch Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3akxLK5Sign Up For Law&Crime's Daily Newsletter: https://bit.ly/LawandCrimeNewsletterRead Fascinating Articles From Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3td2IqoLAW&CRIME NETWORK SOCIAL MEDIA:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lawandcrime/Twitter: https://twitter.com/LawCrimeNetworkFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/lawandcrimeTwitch: https://www.twitch.tv/lawandcrimenetworkTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@lawandcrimeSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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That was Sarah Jackas, a middle school math teacher who is now accused of having sex with a 14-year-old boy in her classroom. I dig into the details of what Jackas is accused of doing to the boy and when, and how detectives say social media is involved. The basics of middle school math. Take a look. You have negative 10. So what you have to do is you have to bring over that negative 10 plus 10 over here. When you rewrite it you can do the negative 54 Y put plus something and then put the plus 10 on the outside and you put zero.

Now she's accused of having sex with one of those students. And over the last week, she spent several days in the Orange County jail in Orlando. Detectives say she groomed and later had sex with a 14 year old boy who was a student of hers at a middle school in Orange County and that she communicated with him using messages on Apple and a Bob the Builder Instagram account. Yes, Bob the Builder, the kids TV show character. That student is now 16 years old. And earlier this month, deputies say he told his parents

that he had sex with Jackas when he was 14. Jackas was teaching at Corner Lakes Middle School at the time in the fall of 2022. Deputies say that the student was having issues, bidding in and hanging out with the right crowd. So he ate lunch with Jackus in her classroom. Now, deputies say that Jackus started to isolate the boy by not allowing other students to come in and have lunch with them. And so they formed a strong bond. They would talk to each other about their problems. An arrest affidavit says the inappropriate relationship

started back in 2023. Deputies wrote, Sarah gave victim one her personal number so she could be contacted by the victim. V1 and Sarah would communicate through text messages about topics, but was caught texting Sarah until approximately 1 a.m. one morning by his parents. So his parents told V1 to stop texting Sarah because it was inappropriate. Sarah then began communicating with V1 through Instagram from an account with the username

BobTheBuilder115520. Sarah later told V1 to delete the messages between them so he did not have a record of them. So deputies say the relationship started with the inappropriate touching and escalated from there. Deputies wrote, beginning around January of 2023, Sarah began touching V1, which started as Sarah grabbing V1's hand to Sarah rubbing his arm. V1 kissed Sarah on the cheek one day while giving her a hug, which V1 described as opening the door for Sarah

to progress their relationship. V1 would spend time with Sarah during lunch and it would be the two of them alone and occasionally kiss. But then detectives said the teenage boy revealed that one day during lunch, Sarah Jackas covered the windows and locked the door to the room.

Detectives say she pulled down her pants and laid down on a pillow and told the boy how to have sex with her. The boy told Jackus that it was okay for him to ejaculate because she had a chip for birth control. Now let's get back to that Bob the Builder Instagram account that I mentioned earlier. The arrest affidavit says that the boy told detectives that Sarah Jackas created that account after his mom caught him texting the

teacher at 1 a.m. and his mom told Jackas they couldn't text anymore because it was inappropriate. So Jackas created that Instagram account, Bob the Builder, 115520. The boy said the numbers were code. The affidavit states, V1 later clarified 115 meant, I miss you, and 520 meant, I love you. V1 said high five meant a kiss. Sarah would post stuff on the account's story so she could communicate with V1. V1 described there would be poll type questions posted to the story or instructions on how to respond to the story, like respond with a heart if this or if this don't respond. V1 said he was the only follower of the account and V1's account was the only one the account followed.

Through this method, V1 and Sarah were able to communicate with each other over winter break. V1 was afraid his parents would find out he was communicating with Sarah again, so he would stick with the new method of communication. Now the boy also told detectives that Jacus would talk dirty to him on Instagram, saying things like, and this is a direct quote, listen to this, I just had sex with my husband and it wasn't the best, but I imagined it was you. Then right before spring break in 2023, the affidavit said that Sarah Jackes and the boy

had sex for the first time. This is how the 14-year-old boy says he lost his virginity. The boy told detectives they had sex several times that week, and Sarah couldn't believe they had done it. But then the week of spring break, things began to unravel according to detectives. Detectives wrote, throughout spring break of 2023, V1 was contacted by the Bob the Builder 115520 account and was asked what they were going to do and what they had been doing. V1 responded, saying they'd been having sex. V1 was then contacted by an unknown number,

and when he answered, Sarah was on the other end of the call. Sarah told V1 it was her husband texting V1 from the account, impersonating Sarah. Sarah's husband took Sarah's phone while they were playing softball one day and was the one messaging V1. Sarah told V1 not to say anything, and she might have to leave the school.

Sarah also instructed V1 to delete their messages and Sarah deactivated the Instagram account BobtheBuilder115520. So that comment about possibly having to leave the school is pretty interesting because Jacus actually posted on YouTube on April 7th of that year and she was talking to her students about being on leave. Take a look. Hey guys just know that I miss you very very much. I know a bunch of you have reached out just checking in on me and I truly truly appreciate those messages, texts, all that emails. I really really appreciate you guys so thank you. I'm just making this video just to keep you guys updated because this will probably be the last time that you hear from me

just because I really am trying to focus and take some time away from work and just focus on me and that's something that I need to do and to be able to do that means that I need to plug away from everything so just please make sure you guys are giving your full attention to Miss Maslowski as a lot of you guys know he's gonna be the new teacher until I come back which I really can't answer that question when that's gonna happen. So people that are saying I'm quitting, no it's not that I'm quitting I'm just taking this time and I don't know what that means whether I'm coming back in a couple weeks or if I'm coming back never. So just know that I am working on myself and just has nothing to do with you guys.

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So in that video, Jacqus said she was working on herself and that's why she was away from school and she didn't want the students blaming themselves. But detectives said she didn't come back to school until the last day of the school year. The affidavit says, Sarah returned for one morning

after coming back from spring break and did not come back until the last day. V1 was not contacted by Sarah or the fake account until the last day of the year. The agreement Sarah and her husband reached was Sarah could not go near V1 either at a redacted place or at any places V1 frequented like the basketball courts, V1 would play basketball. So after this, detectives said that Sarah Jackas told the student about her personal Instagram

account, NYJet's mommy, and that she would view his Instagram stories using that account. The arrest affidavit contains a number of redacted messages between Jackas and the teen. Detectives also recorded a phone call between the boy and Jackus after he reported all of this stuff to them. She was arrested and charged with a number of counts, including lewd and lascivious battery and one count of an authority figure soliciting or engaging in sexual conduct or rape. Okay, so to talk about all of the disturbing details in this case, I want to bring in somebody who we talk to about these really disturbing cases all of the time, and there are way too

many of them. He is Dan Shor. He is a former sex crimes prosecutor, and he's also the author of a new book coming out next month. We're going to talk about that at the end of the interview a little more. It's called Open Bar, and it's about sexual abuse in educational institutions. Dan, thanks for coming back on. Your first thoughts about this case involving Sarah Jackus,

yikes, is all I can say. I'm reading through the affidavit, and the allegations are that this teacher starts grooming this kid. I mean, that's how it always starts. Right. Thanks for having me here. It's always good to talk with you. On the one hand, you read these allegations and I think they appear shocking if you aren't

exposed to this type of material a lot as a sex crimes prosecutor and someone who investigates sexual misconduct with schools, unfortunately it's not as shocking as you would think because this is the pattern that we see in many, many cases. You mentioned the grooming. That's often how sex abuse like this between a teacher and a student happens where there's a kind of connection and talking. And now more and more we see the text messages back and forth that happened here establishing a relationship. The allegations are that it started with just non-sexual

type of touching, which is still inappropriate for a teacher, led to kissing, and then ultimately to sexual intercourse according to the allegations. So it was a pattern of grooming that allegedly took place over time. And we do see that a lot in these cases, unfortunately. The one thing that makes me really sad about this case, all of these cases make me sad. But the one thing that makes me sad is this kid felt like he wasn't fitting in. So he would eat lunch with this teacher, with Sarah, Jakus.

And so that's kind of how this started. And that's a kid, you know, you're a kid that doesn't feel like they fit in, that shows a vulnerability and somebody who's feeling isolated. So that to somebody who might be a predator, that's like, ooh, easy pickings right there. Right, and we definitely see that in a lot of these cases

where the target of the sex abuse is often someone who is vulnerable, who is alone, who doesn't have a support network. If someone has a very strong support network, very often they're going to tell someone else early on in the grooming stages about what's happening. So often people who engage in this type of sex abuse with underage students, they identify people who are more vulnerable, don't have a support network and are more likely to keep things quiet as the grooming progresses. And that's what the allegations say here, that this was someone who really

thrived on getting attention from this teacher and wanted that attention. And then the grooming from that led to the sexual encounters that are described in the affidavit. Yeah, the affidavit says that around November of 2022, so this is going back a little ways, almost three years ago, he starts eating lunch with her and then the victim and Sarah began to form a bond because they're spending all this time together. And apparently the victim would talk to Sarah about his problems. They'd talk to each other about their problems.

So we've got a boundary, possible boundary issue there of Sarah was talking to a 14-year-old about her problems. That's a no-no. Beyond like, oh, maybe I'm having a problem with my having a problem with, you know, my lawnmower or something like that. And Sarah had asked for his phone number, which I still can't get over. Apparently, this is this happens now these days. I was a substitute teacher years ago. I would never have asked for a kid's phone number. The reason she did was because Sarah was known to have somebody else's phone number so they could communicate about topics.

And then apparently the victim said he hugged her one time and then out of instinct kissed her on the cheek. Like when he hugs his mom, he kisses her on the cheek, which is instinctual for him. And then he apologized for the kiss on the cheek and Sarah said it was okay. And then victim, then she kissed victim one on the mouth. And then victim one and Sarah began kissing each other each day after that. Yikes, Dan.

So the kid says this was like innocent, it's like hugging his mom, and then she's just like, oh, it's okay, and then she kisses him on the mouth. Right. And I think it's important to look at it from the perspective of the student. He says he was 14 at the time. This is a teacher. And remember, what are we told about teachers? We're told they're authority figures. Parents always tell their kids, listen to your teacher, respect your teacher. Kids get in trouble when they don't follow the directions of the teacher. So I think it's instinctual on a lot of people to feel, well, if my teacher is doing this, then it's probably okay, especially if someone's vulnerable.

And as I said before, they don't have a support network. So that's part of the abuse and control of being an authority that you can make it seem to someone else who's younger that no, this is okay, I'm the teacher. And he went along with that. And the affidavit describes how the sexual activity progressed until they allegedly had sexual intercourse a few times in the classroom. And it's interesting reading the affidavit about how the parents of this victim did find out about text messages that

were going back and forth between this teacher and the student. And they put a stop to that. But then they started communicating over other social media platforms, Instagram to avoid the text messages. So there was a lot of deception that was needed to stop the parents from knowing how far this was going.

And again, this is something unfortunately I've seen in other cases I've investigated where especially nowadays, there's a lot of communication, text message, social media messaging. And that's a way to connect. And that's why it's important for schools to put a stop to that, that teachers should not be communicating with their students after hours,

unless it's specifically about a class assignment. There's no reason why they should be, in a social way, communicating through text message or phone call with someone who's 14 years old when they're a teacher. on call with someone who's 14 years old when they're a teacher? Then, you know, there's even more, Dan. I mean, there's more. She apparently told him at one point something, according to the affidavit, that I had sex with my husband last night.

It wasn't that good, but I imagined it was you. I mean, the ick factor on this one, I know that all of these stories are disturbing because these are kids involved in this and teachers who are authority figures, but this is just like the ick factor goes beyond anything. And maybe it's because we're seeing such graphic detail here, but it's really, really bad. I mean, I guess they're all bad, but we're just, we're reading all of these details, and it's really, really hard to read.

Absolutely. And not only that, not only does she say that I was having sex with my husband and it wasn't that great, but I got through it because I was thinking of you. And I believe, if I remember correctly, this is before they actually had sexual intercourse, but they were having some type of sexual contact, but they ultimately did have sex, the student,

and the teacher. But then later the teacher tells the student that my husband found out about what's happening between us. And it kind of implies that he may come after the student. So the student all of a sudden then has this horrified situation where not only is he having sex with his teacher, but the teacher's husband found out about it and he's understandably very upset about that.

So the stress that this puts on a student, and you can only imagine the resulting trauma, that is not going to be a short-term thing in most cases. And people carry it around for years, if not their whole lives, to go through something like this when they're underage. And I think society wrongly often looks at male students who are having

sex with a female teacher as less of a victim. And there's kind of this wink wink, nod nod, oh yeah, they want sex, they're teenagers. But I think they overlook the trauma that it's caused when someone's 14, they're not mature yet, and they're having this sexual experience with a teacher who's abusing their authority, taking advantage of them and putting them in this really terrible situation. And I think society takes it more seriously than when I started my career as a sex crimes prosecutor about 25 years ago, but we still have a long way to go.

Yeah, most definitely. And I think there still is that stigma, because every time I do one of these stories, I think it's important that we kind of try to, you know, address that, that a lot of people are like, oh, where was she when I was, you know, that age. But really, I mean, this is trauma inflicted upon these boys. They're boys. This is a 14-year-old with an authority figure, with an adult. And so this can be very traumatic. And I've talked to prosecutors in the past who've handled these cases who say, you know, the victims years later, they

realize the effects of this on themselves, you know, and they, it is traumatic. Talk to me a little bit about that, about how these victims deal with that years later, that they come to the realization that as kids, as teenagers, they were victimized. Maybe they're not processing it at the time, but they're coming to the realization that, yeah, I was preyed upon. Yeah, so I've investigated cases where people have reported this years later, many years later.

Sometimes as adults, people want to go back and make a complaint. It might be past the statute of limitations, but they could still make a complaint with the school because they realize this has had a detrimental effect on their life, on their ability to have healthy relationships with other people. If your introduction to sexual activity is through a situation like this where there's an abuse of power and control and you're underage, then that unfortunately can have a very serious effect on your ability just to have normal healthy relationships

with people as you're growing and maturing. And that's something that, as we were just talking about before, I still see when people know that I'm talking, when they see maybe an interview I've done with you about a topic like this or a case I'm investigating, I still hear from other people, oh, yeah, he was a lucky kid. I wish that happened to me, people say.

And I think people really miss the major point that sex abuse here can have a traumatic impact on a student, whether they're male or female. But we've come a long way. I can tell you, people take a lot more seriously. Law enforcement takes a lot more seriously than they did a decade or two decades ago. So we are going in the right direction.

You know, one thing is on here, they talk about how the teacher, Sarah, she's a math teacher, you know, middle school teacher, she creates this Instagram account. This boy is not supposed to be texting her anymore. She creates this Bob the Builder username, Instagram account. I mean, it's just so, it's so tawdry.

I mean, Bob the Builder, that's a children's character. How do we, how do we like, keep these people out of education? I mean, are we not vetting these teachers properly? What's going on here? Like, what is going on that these people are slipping through the cracks and they're not being... I was prayed out. I mean, we all put...

Everybody's got a mask on, you know, you always hear that. Obviously, I was prayed. If you're in a job interview with somebody and you say, so do you are you attracted to teenage boys? You would say, of course, I'm not. Of course, I'm not. I mean, what? How do you do this?

How do you do better screening? What do we do? Right. So in my career, I've been a part of organizations that did this type of background screening and you're looking for people's media presence, social media presence, any criminal records, civil litigation that they've been a part of. You interview someone, you see if they've had maybe disciplinary records, educational institutions before. But if someone has successfully gotten their degree, become a teacher, they've never been arrested, they've never been sued, they've

never put anything on social media that's concerning. It's really hard to really screen out someone who has the ability to do something like this. And we definitely want better screening. But if there's not something in the public record or that's revealed in an interview with somebody, a school will never know if this is the first time that someone's done something like this or if they've done it before but it's never

been publicly disclosed. that's really important. The problem that we sometimes see is sometimes a teacher moves on from one school to another school and then a new school never knows about what happened in the prior school, where there was some type of misconduct, and then they re-offend at the new school. We definitely need better communication about when people leave to a new job, what they might have done at their previous position. But if this woman had never engaged in conduct like this before, it would not be found

through a background search. So that's a problem with trying to weed out people who would do such type of misconduct. You know, this all came to a head, this whole case, you know, earlier this month. You know, they started looking into case, you know, earlier this month. You know, they started looking into this, you know, he's calling her. You know, the calls aren't going through, you know, the cops pick her up, they charge her. I mean, you know, they've got it sounds like a trove, a treasure trove of evidence against her. They not only have the statements, but they like a trove, a treasure trove of evidence against her.

They not only have the statements, but they have a lot of Apple messages, the iMessages between these two. They're redacted. They're all blacked out in the arrest warrant. So we'll see what happens with the case. But do you find this to be a compelling amount of information and evidence that the prosecution or at least the sheriff's office detectives have gathered at this point in time? Absolutely.

And those electronic communications are extremely important for a case like this because if someone who is a defendant in a case like this says, oh no, we never had any type of conduct that was sexual or inappropriate in any way, then how do they explain the fact that there are all these messages? Why are you messaging this many times in such a familial way to a 14-year-old? And also, there's so many details in the story from the 14-year-old in the affidavit about going into the classroom with the teacher, specifically where he was touched, how the first time they actually had sexual intercourse, how she blacked out the windows no one could see and locked the door, how she had a pillow

that they had sex on. So there's a lot of specifics and those specifics are often very powerful in terms of showing the credibility. If someone's making a complaint, it sometimes appears less credible if someone's more vague and their details are really unclear. This affidavit has a lot of specifics and it would be hard to contest them. But the respondent, of course, is innocent until proven guilty. So we'll see what their defense is. Yeah, we will see. And you know, she's incarcerated right now. She's

in the Orange County Jail down there in Orlando. So we'll see where the case goes. You know, at this point, she'll plead not guilty to the charges and the case goes. You know, at this point, she'll plead not guilty to the charges and the case will move its way, make its way through the courts. Tell me about Open Bar, when it comes out and what it's about. Great. So Open Bar is my second novel. It's about sexual misconduct at educational institutions. It's a fast moving political thriller and it's based on my real investigations as a prosecutor and an investigator. So if people want to learn more, I have a newsletter about this type of books and these type of issues on Substack

so people could find me, Dan Schor there. And August 12th, Open Bar comes out. All right, well, we will keep an eye on it. Dan Schor, thanks for your time as always. We appreciate it. It's great talking with you. Thanks for having me. Orange County Schools reached out

to the parents in the district. Part of the message read, Corner Lake Middle School families, this is Principal Browning calling to make you aware that one of our employees has been arrested after allegations of misconduct from two years ago were reported. I can assure you I take all allegations very seriously

and there is an ongoing investigation by law enforcement and the district's Office of Professional Standards. Although I cannot discuss employee matters, please know this person will not be returning to campus pending the outcome of the investigation. Now Sarah Jack has posted bail, so she's no longer in the Orange County jail. And we'll continue to follow this case for you.

That's it for this episode of Crime Fix. I'm Anjana Levy. Thanks so much for being with me. I'll see you back here next time.