According to Pinellas Park police, 41-year-old Brett Caskey used his position as a coach to build inappropriate relationships with female students.<\/p>\n
PINELLAS PARK, Fla. \u2014 A Pinellas Park charter school teacher has been arrested on a charge of lewd and lascivious conduct involving a minor.<\/p>\n
Pinellas Park police detectives say they began investigating in December 2025 after receiving reports of inappropriate conduct between Brett Caskey, 41, and some of his students.<\/p>\n
Detectives say Caskey used his position as a coach at Plato Academy to gain the trust of female students, buying them clothing and food in some cases. According to an affidavit, several instances of inappropriate conduct took place on school grounds.<\/p>\n
In one instance, Caskey allegedly kissed a female student while she was sitting on his lap inside his classroom. That same student told detectives she was applying makeup to Caskey in his classroom when he rubbed the outside of her thighs over her clothing, per the affidavit.<\/p>\n
The student said the relationship progressed to Caskey sending her photos of his genitals between May and August 2025, according to the affidavit.<\/p>\n
Detectives say they learned through several students that Caskey would refer to the girl as “mommy” or “princess” while communicating via Snapchat. The victim reportedly referred to Caskey as “daddy.”<\/p>\n
Caskey has been charged with lewd or lascivious conduct.<\/p>\n
Plato Academy’s corporate office confirmed to 10 Tampa Bay News that Caskey was put on leave as soon as the school received a tip of possible misconduct.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Office staff sent us the following statement:<\/p>\n
“Plato Academy Schools is deeply committed to the safety and well-being of our students. We take all allegations regarding employee conduct with the utmost seriousness. In light of recent developments, we would like to provide the community with the following information.<\/p>\n
Plato Academy Schools received a Fortify Florida tip alleging possible misconduct involving Brett Caskey prior to the winter holiday. Upon receipt of the tip, administration took action by placing Mr. Caskey on immediate leave pending an investigation by law enforcement. Additionally, administration reported the Fortify FL tip to DCF to ensure a comprehensive review of the allegations by all appropriate authorities.<\/p>\n
Plato Academy Schools is cooperating fully with law enforcement and will continue to follow all applicable laws, policies, and established protocols. As this matter is currently under investigation by law enforcement, we are unable to share additional details at this time, other than that Mr. Caskey has not been an employee of Plato Academy since we were first notified of the concern.<\/p>\n
We understand the seriousness of this situation and the concern it may raise within our school community. We want to reassure parents, students, and staff that Plato Academy Schools acts promptly and responsibly when concerns are brought forward and remains steadfast in its commitment to providing a safe and supportive learning environment for all students.<\/p>\n
The safety of our students remains our highest priority, and we will continue to work closely with law enforcement to uphold the integrity of our schools.”<\/p>\n
Pinellas Park police are asking anyone with information about inappropriate contact or behavior involving Caskey to contact the department.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"According to Pinellas Park police, 41-year-old Brett Caskey used his position as a coach to build inappropriate relationships…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":146260,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[202,204,203,199,201,200],"class_list":{"0":"post-146259","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-st-petersburg","8":"tag-st-pete","9":"tag-st-pete-headlines","10":"tag-st-pete-news","11":"tag-st-petersburg","12":"tag-st-petersburg-headlines","13":"tag-st-petersburg-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/146259","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=146259"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/146259\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/146260"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=146259"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=146259"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=146259"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}