LAKE COUNTY, Fla. — A former Lake County principal, accused of sexually assaulting a student, was taken to the Lake County jail Thursday. John Jack Currie, also known as Mr. Hugs, worked in Minneola when the alleged crime happened, but he'd been living and teaching in Tennessee before his arrest.
Currie was returned to Central Florida late Thursday afternoon. He was taken to the Lake County jail to face serious allegations that he raped a first grader while he was a principal in Lake County more than 25 years ago.
"Are you a child molester?" WFTV reporter Kenneth Moton asked Currie as he was led into jail Thursday.
"No, I am not," he said.
Lake County sheriff's investigators say a man, who is now in his 30s, came forward last year and claimed Currie sexually assaulted him inside Minneola Elementary and Currie's Eustis home in 1984.
Currie got his nickname of Mr. Hugs in the 1990s, because he said hugging children gave them better self esteem. That hands-on approach got him in trouble when he was accused of molesting several boys at schools in Lake and Osceola counties, but Currie was never prosecuted for different reasons in each case.
Currie was arrested two weeks ago in Knoxville, Tennessee where he's been a professor at a small college for the past 10 years.
Currie will not have to see a judge. His bond has been set at $25,000; as soon as he pays it, he can walk out of jail.