{"id":181983,"date":"2026-03-07T12:10:07","date_gmt":"2026-03-07T12:10:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/181983\/"},"modified":"2026-03-07T12:10:07","modified_gmt":"2026-03-07T12:10:07","slug":"florida-school-bus-driver-jailed-in-alleged-lewd-child-case","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/181983\/","title":{"rendered":"Florida school bus driver jailed in alleged lewd child case"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>St. Lucie County Sheriff’s Office<\/p>\n

A man identified as a St. Lucie County school bus driver was arrested after allegations of inappropriately touching a 9-year-old student, according to the St. Lucie County Sheriff\u2019s Office on March 6.<\/p>\n

Edwin Garcia, 71, of Port St. Lucie, was jailed on two counts of lewd and lascivious molestation of a victim under the age of 12 by an offender 18 years of age or older. Garcia was arrested March 6, according to Capt. Andrew Bolonka, sheriff\u2019s spokesperson.<\/p>\n

A school resource deputy March 4 got a report indicating a St. Lucie County school bus driver asked a 9-year-old student to lift her clothing as she was on the bus.<\/p>\n

\u201cDuring the follow-up investigation, additional information was developed indicating the driver may have made inappropriate comments to the child and possibly pinched her over her clothing in the pelvic area,\u201d the Sheriff\u2019s Office stated.<\/p>\n

Those with additional information are asked to contact Detective Cpl. Hunter Limb at 772-462-7300 or [email\u00a0protected]<\/a><\/p>\n

Lydia Martin, Chief Communications Officer with St. Lucie Schools, in an email said parents of students assigned to bus routes previously driven by Garcia were sent the following message:<\/p>\n

\u201cSt. Lucie Public Schools was notified on March 6, 2026, of the arrest of Edwin Garcia, a bus driver for St. Lucie Public Schools. Mr. Garcia was arrested for the following felony charges:<\/p>\n

2 counts of Lewd and Lascivious Battery on a child under 12<\/p>\n

In accordance with Florida statute 1012.797, we are notifying you of the arrest due to the nature of felony offenses.\u201d<\/p>\n

She said the bus driver has been employed with the School District since January 2015.<\/p>\n

(This story was updated with new information.)<\/p>\n

Reporting by Will Greenlee, Treasure Coast Newspapers \/ Treasure Coast Newspapers<\/p>\n

USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect<\/p>\n

\n\tRelated<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"St. Lucie County Sheriff’s Office A man identified as a St. Lucie County school bus driver was arrested…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":181984,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[692,59663,3339,3340,59664,749,502,265,59665,7550,59666,59667,557,59668,132,59669,59670,171,173,172,59671],"class_list":["post-181983","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-port-st-lucie","tag-arrest","tag-boca-raton-police","tag-boca-raton-tribune","tag-boca-tribune","tag-boynton-beach-police","tag-breaking-news","tag-community","tag-crime","tag-delray-beach-police","tag-felony","tag-local-police","tag-mugshot","tag-palm-beach-county","tag-palm-beach-county-sheriffs-office","tag-police","tag-police-blot","tag-police-report-boca-raton","tag-port-st-lucie","tag-port-st-lucie-headlines","tag-port-st-lucie-news","tag-stay-alert"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/181983","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=181983"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/181983\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/181984"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=181983"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=181983"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=181983"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}