Jeffery Farris
Introduction
Jeffery Farris, 54, is a longtime Florida physical education teacher who was arrested on October 30, 2026, and charged with molesting a student who was eight years old when the alleged abuse happened at Saddlewood Elementary School in Ocala. He has been held without bond in the Marion County Jail, and the school district has removed him from the classroom and says it plans to fire him.
Background Information
Farris spent more than two decades in Marion County Public Schools. He was hired as a P.E. teacher at Ward-Highlands Elementary School in August 2000, transferred to Saddlewood Elementary during the 2013-2014 school year, and coached wrestling at several area high schools over the years, including Belleview, Dunnellon and West Port, most recently at South Marion High School.
The arrest was not his first brush with school-district discipline. In 2017, while working as a wrestling coach at West Port High School, Farris was suspended for six days after a district investigation determined he had shared a hotel room with a female student while traveling for wrestling. No allegations of sexual contact were made in that case, and records noted they slept in separate beds.
The Controversy or Incident That Led to Their Cancellation
Charged with molesting a child under 12; on leave and facing termination. Farris was arrested October 30, 2026, held without bond, and detectives say there may be additional victims.
Marion County Sheriff’s Office detectives began investigating Farris in September 2026 after receiving a report of inappropriate contact. According to the sheriff’s media release, Farris allegedly sent the victim into an equipment room at Saddlewood Elementary and grabbed her private areas when she bent over. The victim — who was 8 years old and attending Saddlewood at the time, per the arrest report — said Farris grabbed her butt and genital area from behind, and also reported that he had grabbed her by the waist on prior occasions in front of other students.
When detectives asked Farris during an interview whether he knew why he was being questioned, he reportedly stated he believed it was because he had recently seen a female student’s nipple while helping her unzip a jacket — a statement that, combined with his disciplinary history, fed investigators’ concern that other children may have been targeted.
Farris was removed from the classroom and placed on administrative leave on October 20, when the Saddlewood allegation was first made. On Friday, October 30, 2026, he was placed under arrest, booked into the Marion County Jail, and charged with one felony count of lewd and lascivious behavior — molesting a victim less than 12 years of age. Jail records show he remains in custody without bond, with a court appearance scheduled for 9 a.m. on December 1, 2026.
Public Reaction and Consequences
The district moved on two tracks at once: it informed families and staff of the school about the arrest on a molestation charge, and it began the process of firing him, saying officially that it plans to terminate his employment. The 2017 suspension — six days for sharing a room with a student — has been recirculated in coverage of the arrest as context for how the same teacher stayed in classrooms and coaching roles for nearly another decade.
Detectives’ public appeal is unusual for an elementary-school case: believing there may be additional victims, they urged anyone who had a similar encounter with Farris to contact the Marion County Sheriff’s Office. The charge itself — a lewd-and-lascivious molestation count involving a child under 12 — is a felony, and it remains an accusation; Farris has not been tried, and the allegations are unadjudicated.
Current Status
Farris is in the Marion County Jail without bond, charged with lewd and lascivious molestation of a victim under 12. He has been on administrative leave since October 20 and is facing termination by Marion County Public Schools. His next court appearance is set for December 1, 2026, and detectives continue to ask potential additional victims to come forward.
Impact on Their Career/Life
A 26-year career in Marion County classrooms and wrestling rooms is ending in a jail cell rather than a retirement. The termination the district plans would follow the 2017 suspension that already put him on notice about boundary conduct with a student, and the current charge — involving a child the age of his alleged victims when they were in his school — forecloses any future in education regardless of the criminal outcome. The open question investigators have put to the public, whether other children had similar encounters with him, could add charges; the December court date is where the criminal case moves next.