JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – A registered sexual offender was arrested last week after he was accused of using his cellphone to record two students in a restroom at a Duval County high school, authorities said.
Jamal Collins, 25, of Jacksonville, is charged with video voyeurism.
The incident happened Sept. 9 at Riverside High School. According to an affidavit for an arrest warrant, a male student and a female student went into the boys restroom together after school hours, and while they were both exposed in a bathroom stall, they saw an iPhone peering under the stall.
School security cameras then caught Collins running out of the restroom and down the hall, according to the affidavit.
Five days later, according to the court document, investigators talked to an instructor for the Riverside High dance team. The document says she identified her son, Collins, as the suspect and said he was on campus, assisting with an after-school event.
News4Jax talked with our crime and safety expert Ken Jefferson, a former officer with the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office, about this.
“It’s very odd, and here’s a reason why I find it odd because a sex offender is allowed on school. How do you not know that? How do you not screen for a person that’s coming to work or even help out?” Jefferson said.
According to Duval County Public Schools, Collins’ mother was a volunteer. A DCPS spokesperson sent News4Jax the following statement:
“While our review of the matter continues, we were appalled to learn that a volunteer apparently brought her son, now known to be a sex offender, to afterschool activities last month.
“Upon learning of Mr. Collins’ background as a result of his arrest for the alleged incident, the volunteer who brought him to campus was disassociated from the school earlier this week.
“It should be noted that the volunteer was associated with afterschool student activities under the direction of a teacher, who is a staff member of the school with responsibility for these afterschool activities. The person who brought her son to the campus assisted the teacher as a volunteer instructor.
“Because Mr. Collins was not officially associated with the program and was in attendance as a guest of his mother, the volunteer, there was no way for the school or the teacher in charge to know of Mr. Collins’ status as a sex offender at the time of the incident.”
Collins was arrested Friday and was booked into the Duval County jail, where he was being held without bond as of Thursday, according to jail records.
He is listed as working with the First Coast Leadership Foundation. News4Jax reached out to the foundation and has not received a response.
News4Jax has also not been able to reach Collins’ mother for comment.
Collins was arrested in 2018 on a charge of sexual battery in Leon County. He pleaded guilty in 2019 and was given five years of probation as a sex offender. He did not serve prison time.
News4Jax did ask-DCPS if parents were notified of last month’s incident and was told only those of the two students involved were notified.
People waiting to pick up students at Riverside High on Thursday were surprised to find out about the incident on campus last month.
“They should have let people know,” said a woman whose grandchild attends the school. “And, of course, he should not have been here in the first place.”