SUMTER, S.C. — Two school coaches have been arrested in Sumter County for criminal solicitation of a minor among other charges. The two instances happened at different schools and are unrelated, but both arrests were announced on Thursday.
"Our children are our prized possessions," Sumter County Sheriff's Office Chief Deputy Hampton Gardner shares.
Gardner says two men have been arrested; one was a basketball coach at Crestwood High School, and the other a softball coach at Sumter Christian School.
"We received those complaints. We acted upon them. And those complaints came in via the school administration and slash our school resource officers. And upon responding to that, an investigation started on each case," Gardner explains. "And as a result, both coaches were consequently arrested."
At Crestwood High School, Tony Wilson has been charged with assault and battery, criminal sexual conduct with a minor, unlawful dissemination of obscene material and criminal solicitation after two students reported they had been harassed and assaulted by him.
In a statement from Sumter School District, the school says, "Mr. Wilson is no longer employed by Sumter School District. He resigned April 6."
"Before we decided to make arrests, we wanted to make sure that they had been investigated to the fullest," Gardner explains about the time it took to announce information about the investigation. "We wanted to ensure that there were no other victims out there as well."
Gardner says Sumter Christian School administration contacted law enforcement to report former softball coach Andre Johnson after a student said he sent her text messages that made her feel "uneasy." The sheriff’s office says those texts included requests to have sex, as well as pornographic images.
"Of course, we take incidents of this effect real serious, you know, these things certainly we take very serious, very serious, and we will investigate them to the fullest," Gardner explains.
According to the sheriff's department, both men are now out on bond.
"We are still investigating, but at this point, they have not been as victims that we have identified," Gardner says. "In this particular case, you know, again, it's still ongoing and as of this time, you know, we feel confident that, what we've done thus far has been very thorough."
News 19 reached out to Sumter Christian School. We were told the administrator was out of the office and he did not return our call as of 5:30 p.m.