Polk principal arrested for sexual battery on a child

Lakeland, Florida - Corey Lynn Swindler, the principal at Sikes Elementary School in Lakeland, has been arrested on charges he sexually assualted a young girl. Officials say Swindler has been charged with six counts of lewd molestation on a child less than 12 years of age and one count of sexual battery on a child under 12 years of age.   

"This conduct is outrageous," said Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd. "It cuts at the very fabric of what we're all about in this society of respecting children and certainly a school principal is the very last one you would suspect," Judd added.

Detectives say Swindler confessed to the lewd molestation charges after being arrested, but not to the sexual battery charge. Swindler, 38, is currently in the county jail awaiting his initial court appearance.

Officials say the alleged incidents began when the girl was in kindergarten, she is now 11. Judd says the victim was a "family friend' that Swindler has know for ten years.

"At this point in the investigation there is absolutely nothing that leads us to believe that this conduct was tied to Sikes Elementary or any of the children there," Judd said.

Swindler has been with the school district for 11 years and principal at Sikes for 3 years.

He's been placed on adminstrative leave.