Turns out a suspect arrested on child exploitation charges not only was a substitute teacher in Jackson and Banks counties, but also spent some time in classrooms in the Madison County School System.
According to a statement issued over the weekend by the Madison County School Superintendent, Ernest Shaw was a teacher's sub during the current school year. Dr. Allen McCannon says Shaw was immediately removed from the substitute teacher list when school officials were informed Shaw was under investigation.
"On April 27, 2018, the Jackson County Sheriff's Department informed our system that Shaw was being investigated for child pornography. The system immediately removed Shaw from the substitute teacher leader list and made sure that he would not work in our system again," Dr. Allen McCannon wrote in the statement.
McCannon said he informed the Board of Education about the investigation at a called meeting on April 30. He said he was informed of Shaw's arrest on May 4 at 4 p.m.
"I informed the Board of Education, all principals, and central office leaders of this arrest on Friday afternoon. My plan was to send some type of communication out on Monday informing staff and parents. Historically, we do not try to send out information of this nature on a Friday evening. Due to the amount of communication about this arrest on social media, I thought that an official statement was needed now," McCannon said.
He said the Madison County School District had received no official complaints about Shaw. However, he asked anyone with information that might help in the investigation to contact his office.
The 65-year-old Shaw is from Nicholson. He faces 66 counts of sexual exploitation of children and at last report remained in the Jackson County Detention Center on a bond of $660,000.
