Sexual Battery Complaint Filed By Former Pinellas Student Leads To Pasco Teacher's Arrest

HUDSON, FL — Pinellas County sheriff's detectives arrested a Pasco County school teacher Saturday on sexual battery charges following a complaint from a former student at Pinellas Park Middle School.

According to detectives, the investigation began on Jan. 7, after receiving a report from a former student at Pinellas Park High School. The student told detectives that, from 2017 to 2018, when she was 14 years old, her teacher at Pinellas Park High began a sexual relationship with her.

When they investigated, detectives found that 32-year-old Kyle Handfield of the 12000 block of Fieldstone Lane, Hudson, currently a music teacher at Fivay High School in Hudson, began communicating with the teen through a social networking website.

Detectives said Handfield later engaged in inappropriate sexual activity with the teen while she was a student at Pinellas Park Middle School and Handfield was her teacher. Handfield was a teacher at Pinellas Park Middle School from March 2015 to August 2020.

After corroborating the teen's complaint, detectives arrested and charged Handfield with three counts of sexual battery with custodial authority.

Handfield has been a teacher at Fivay High School in Pasco County since August 2020.

He is being held at the Pinellas County Jail on $450,000 bail.

Detectives say they are not aware of any other victims, but anyone with information should call the Pinellas County Sheriff's Office Crimes Against Children Unit at 727-582-6566.