A Florida bus driver was arrested Thursday for allegedly giving a student a book he wrote about sex abuse.
Jimmy Rogers Tate has been charged with distributing obscene material to a minor, a felony punishable by up to five years in prison. The 54-year-old from Palm Bay was released from Brevard County Jail on Friday on a $5,000 bond and is awaiting trial.
The Brevard County Sheriff's Office said Tate gave a ninth-grade girl a book about sexual acts between an adult man and a toddler, according to an arrest affidavit. The material was allegedly given to the student on June 2.
The sheriff's office said the book, titled Tiny: Daddy's Little Girl, was self-published by Tate on Amazon. Amazon appears to have deactivated the link to Tate's book.
Tate has been on leave since the allegation came to the school's attention in early June.
"This is a very serious charge and we are comforted that school staff and the sheriff's office acted quickly after the student and her family came forward. Our goal is to provide support for the victim in this case," Russell Bruhn, a chief strategic communications officer at Brevard Public Schools, told Newsweek.
The student's mother brought her concern about Tate's alleged action to the administration at Viera High School two days after the driver handed out the book. The school's assistant principal, Heather Smith, reviewed the material and proceeded to call the sheriff's office.
When the mother met with the authorities, she said Tate asked her daughter how she liked the book. The ninth-grader read part of the book, the mother told the sheriff's office, but "she felt very uncomfortable and unsafe."
According to the arrest report, Tate laughed when the student told him the book was "very detailed."
In the first chapter of the book, a rape between two characters is described. Later in the text, a rape is described between an adult man and a 3-year-old female, according to the affidavit.
Tate told investigators during a June 24 interview that the book started out as a true story about his ex-wife, "Tiny," but ended up being fictional. He also told authorities he thought the book was appropriate for people age 13 and over.
He chose the student because she liked to read novels, and believed she was a senior in high school, the affidavit stated.
Tate told authorities he'd already received a letter from the school about a complaint against him. He said he knew the complaint was over the book and he'd probably be fired from his job as a result of his actions.
According to the affidavit, Tate wrote a letter apologizing to the student's mother.
Updated 07/09/2021, 4:53 p.m. ET: This story was updated with additional information from Tate's arrest affidavit.
