Boca Raton Middle employee fired after being accused of trying to meet minor for sex
The Palm Beach County School Board has terminated a man who worked at Boca Raton Middle School following his arrest earlier this week on a charge of traveling to meet a minor for unlawful sex.
Stephon McCray, 44, was a 'non-instructional staff member' and was removed from the middle school in February when McCray was initially reported to Delray Beach Police, the school said in a message to parents on Wednesday. The School Board voted to fire him on Wednesday.
Officers were called to Sprouts Farmers Market in Delray Beach on Feb. 26 about a 'suspicious incident.' They met with Dustin Lampros, who runs a social media account called '561 Predator Catchers,' according to a probable cause affidavit for McCray's arrest.
The account is similar to the 'To Catch a Predator' series from NBC's 'Dateline,' where adult men ran sting operations and confronted those who believed there were meeting up with minors for sex in the early 2000s.
Lampros told police that McCray had been inappropriately communicating through the dating app Grindr and through texts with someone who posing as a 14-year-old boy named 'Jordan,' the affidavit said. In reality, McCray was messaging with someone else, a 'decoy.' Lampros showed officers all of the messages.
McCray and 'Jordan' messaged for several hours on Feb. 26, and several were about meeting up for sexual activity, the affidavit showed. 'Jordan' early on in their texting purported to McCray that he was a minor. It is not clear in the affidavit who was actually texting McCray.
'do u care if im younger or nah,' the person pretending to be a minor wrote.
'Are you legal?' McCray replied.
'im bout to be 15 just being honest its hard af being gay nowadays hope u not madd,' the person wrote back.
'I'm not mad… but being under age can get someone like me in prison if it were to become anything but clean and clear conversation,' McCray replied.
In the messages that followed, McCray told the decoy that their conversations had to be 'PG-13 or better,' according to the affidavit. They talked about meeting up at a store, and 'Jordan' asked what they would do if they were to meet.
'Not sure yet. I'm still trying to figure out and decide if you're an undercover law enforcement agent or not,' McCray wrote. 'What store would it be?'
McCray in one message to 'Jordan' described exactly the situation he did not know he was in; he wrote that he had a friend who works as 'a child predator victim agency' and had told him about how people pretend to be minors online 'and then try to catch adults who setup meetings to 'abuse' them,' the affidavit said.
'bruh I aint got time for that,' the decoy replied.
After McCray allegedly messaged that he was hoping 'Jordan' would engage in sexual activity with him and went to the supermarket to meet up, Lampros confronted McCray inside the store and recorded the encounter, a video posted on YouTube showed. Lampros's stings have resulted in numerous arrests in Palm Beach County.
The probable cause affidavit was signed by an officer a week later. McCray was booked into the Palm Beach County jail earlier this week and has been released after posting bail on a $20,000 bond and must follow certain conditions, including not using the internet, social media, a computer, a smart phone or emailing or text messaging.
His defense attorney did not respond to a request for comment. He has pleaded not guilty to the charge.
The message sent to Boca Raton Middle School families on Wednesday said that McCray had not been allowed to interact with any students since he was removed from the campus in February.
'The safety of our students is our utmost priority. Following an internal investigation, the School District is proceeding with the termination of Mr. McCray's employment,' the message said. 'We were informed (Tuesday) that Mr. McCray has been arrested. Current information suggests this incident did not involve any students from our campus.'
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