Teacher Believes She Saw Indecent Man Near Loganville Middle School

A teacher at Loganville Middle thinks she saw a man masturbating near the school parking lot earlier this week. 

According to Loganville Police Assistant Chief Dick Lowry, officers investigated the local man and only cited him for criminal trespassing. 

Lowry said the teacher saw the man Monday (Sept. 16) as she was leaving the school around 5 p.m. He was in a pickup truck parked near the school, behind Kroger in a fire lane adjacent to the school. 

The man wasn't exposed, but "based on his motion inside the vehicle, she believed he was masturbating," Lowry said. No children were present when the teacher saw the man. 

On Tuesday (Sept. 19), she told the school resource officer about the incident. The SRO then gave a description of the truck and man to Loganville Police.  

Lt. Joesph Cantrell was at the school that day around 5 p.m., the same time as the Monday incident, and saw a man matching the description in relatively the same place. 

Patrol officers responded to the scene to question the man. The 57-year-old told police that he was not masturbating and had pulled over to use his phone.

Since the teacher didn't actually see the man in the act, the officers only wrote him a criminal trespassing ticket for being parked in the fire lane. He was not arrested.

When officers questioned him about what the teacher had seen, the man didn't admit to doing it. 

Lowry said police do have suspicions that he was masturbating. But they don't believe the sexual act was connected to the school at all; his location just happened to be near a school. 

"Obviously because of the location, it takes some additional looking into," Lowry said, "but it honestly was not what it appeared to be. ... We certainly would have charged him if he was in the act."

But, "just to stay on the safe side," Lowry added, the criminal trespassing charge does include for him to stay away from the school.