A Clearwater Academy teacher is accused of child abuse when her child is found in her locked SUV while she shopped.
By Times Staff Writer
Published July 15, 2003
DUNEDIN - A schoolteacher was arrested Sunday evening and accused of leaving her 3-year-old son in her locked vehicle for up to a half-hour while she grocery-shopped.
The child was not hurt.
Kimberly D. Pesch, 38, a teacher at Clearwater Academy, was arrested on charges of child abuse and resisting arrest without violence.
She posted $5,250 bail and was released from the Pinellas County Jail.
Pesch was arrested after Pinellas sheriff's deputies were summoned to the Publix parking lot at 902 Curlew Road in Dunedin about 7 p.m. Sunday.
A witness reported seeing a woman leave a young child in her black Chevrolet Suburban when she went into the Publix, sheriff's reports state.
The Suburban was locked with the windows up. The child was asleep in a safety seat in the back.
Deputies reported the weather was overcast but warm.
Deputies asked Publix employees to page the owner of the Suburban and called the Fire Department to the scene. Pesch emerged from the store and opened the vehicle door. Paramedics determined the child was hot and sweaty, but otherwise fine, sheriff's reports say.
Pesch told deputies she didn't do anything wrong. She came outside in the middle of her shopping and turned on the air-conditioning for a time, she told deputies.
Deputies told her to call someone to pick up the child. She pulled away from deputies during the arrest.
Jim Zwers, principal of Clearwater Academy on Drew Street, declined to comment on the arrest.
