A Florida high school teacher has been charged with repeatedly engaging in sexual activities with a student who had moved into her residence, and allegedly supplying the teenager with alcohol, as detailed in an arrest affidavit.
Mackenzie McLean, a 49-year-old economics teacher at Crooms Academy in Sanford, was taken into custody on Tuesday. She faces charges of two counts of sex offense by an authority figure and one count of distributing a controlled substance.
According to the affidavit, the student, who is a senior and a friend of McLean’s daughter, began living with the teacher around March 2024 after being expelled from his own home.
The affidavit reveals that during one incident, while the student was playing video games with McLean and her daughter in a bedroom, McLean allegedly provided him with 12 shots of gin, leading to severe intoxication. She is then accused of asking her daughter to leave the room before engaging in sexual activity with the student.
Mackenzie McLean, who has been an economics teacher at Crooms Academy in Sanford, Florida, was placed on administrative leave by the school district following her arrest on Tuesday, as reported by the Seminole County Sheriff’s Office.
The student recounted to authorities that the encounter was brief, claiming he “pushed McLean off him and told her it was wrong.”
The student lived with McLean for nine months, though he estimated that he was sexually abused “approximately five to ten times” in the two months when she was still his teacher.
McLean taught the male student at Crooms Academy Of Information Technology, a magnet school in Sanford, Florida. (Google Maps)
As the student told authorities about the alleged sexual encounters, detectives noted in the affidavit that he appeared “quite emotional” and started crying with visible tears.
The student said he allowed the sex to continue because he was afraid that if he stopped, he would no longer have a place to live or food to eat.
The student also brought a friend to speak with detectives who said she had also spent time at McLean’s home, sometimes sleeping over. The teen girl alleged that McLean provided her with alcohol and Adderall, a schedule two controlled substance.
The friend said that she witnessed McLean ask the student to sleep in bed with him, though she did not have direct knowledge of any sexual activity until sometime later, according to the affidavit.
McLean was arrested on Tuesday and is being held on $35,000 bond. (iStock)
Text messages between McLean and the teen girl show that McLean claimed she knew the sexual relationship with the student was wrong, though she alleged that the student initiated the sex.
“I’m well aware that I’m the adultier adult and so I intentionally never initiated anything because I didn’t want to make him feel any kind of way,” reads one alleged message from McLean.
McLean was placed on administrative leave Tuesday morning after spending nearly 25 years working in the district, a Seminole County Public Schools spokesperson told FOX35 Orlando in a statement.
“Any allegations of misconduct by our staff will be taken seriously and handled quickly,” the statement said. “The safety of our students and staff is our highest priority, and any type of behavior that jeopardizes that safety will not be tolerated in Seminole County Public Schools.”
McLean is being held on a $35,000 bond. Her next court date is scheduled for March 31.
