South MS man wrongly accused of child sex crimes for one reason, lawsuit says
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- A former substitute teacher filed suit after being wrongly accused of sexual misconduct.
- Lawsuit says employment agency and school district failed to verify facts or notify him.
- The Gulfport family alleges reputational harm, lost wages and trauma.
About nine months after he was shut out of substitute teaching jobs, Gulfport resident Cedric Charles learned why.
He was on active military duty in the Middle East in May 2023 when his wife, Laquanta Charles, reached him. He discovered the Harrison County School District had falsely reported to Kelly Services Inc., where he received teaching assignments, that he had engaged in sexually inappropriate behavior with middle school students.
Charles’ allegation is included in a lawsuit he has filed, along with his wife, in Harrison County Circuit Court against Kelly Services and the Harrison County School District. Kelly Services and the Harrison County School District’s attorney have not responded to messages left by the Sun Herald.
Neither Kelly nor the school district have had time to file responses in the court case, where the lawsuit represents only the Charleses’ side of the story. But the school district did move the case to federal court and has until Aug. 6 to respond to the couple’s allegations.
The case of mistaken identity had broader repercussions, says the Charleses’ lawsuit, filed by Hattiesburg attorney Donald Medley. According to the lawsuit, the substitute teacher who actually committed the abuse later pleaded guilty to multiple charges of sexually inappropriate contact in May 2023 with students at Ocean Springs Middle School.
In the Ocean Springs case, Keshawn Tre’Vyune Belcher, 22 at the time, was sentenced to 20 years in prison with no possibility of early release.
Cedric Charles and Belcher had at least two things in common: both are Black, and both were substitute teaching through Kelly Services at North Gulfport Middle School on Sept. 2, 2022, when the initial child sexual abuse allegedly happened..
The school district, the Charleses’ lawsuit says, “failed to verify the details of the events because it treated the black substitute teachers as a monolith, interchangeable, one for the other and, in doing so, it treated Mr. Charles with less care and scrutiny than it would have treated a white substitute teacher accused of the same actions.”
Lawsuit details sexual misconduct
The Charleses’ lawsuit details two separate incidents involving Belcher at North Gulfport Middle School. On Aug. 16, 2022, it says, the school district reported Belcher to Kelly for throwing things at students and directed the employment agency to remove him from the district’s substitute teaching roster.
Instead, Kelly returned him to the school, the lawsuit says, where he was one of two Black substitute teachers working Sept. 2, 2022. On that day, he allowed students to view “explicit nude photos” of him and others engaged in inappropriate behavior and was carrying three knives, the lawsuit says.
The school investigated and, although no charges were pressed, Belcher admitted what he had done and was told to leave the school the same day. It is unclear whether school authorities reported Belcher to Child Protective Services, as state law requires. However, the lawsuit says, the school district “inaccurately reported” to Kelly that Cedric Charles — not Belcher — had committed the offenses.
The lawsuit says that Kelly locked Charles out of the system without explanation or investigation. When Charles called and emailed Kelly for answers, the lawsuit says, he got none.
And then he was deployed overseas for military duty. Charles found out what had happened after Belcher was arrested in April 2023. Belcher later admitted in court that he had kissed a 13-year-old Ocean Springs Middle School student on the mouth while they were alone in a classroom. He also shared his Snapchat with students, asked them to send him masturbation videos and asked to meet for sexual purposes, according to Jackson County prosecutors.
School officials question, traumatize son, lawsuit says
When Belcher’s arrest was publicized, the Charleses’ lawsuit says, their son was questioned at North Gulfport Middle School, where he was a student. He was questioned without his parents’ consent or presence, the lawsuit says.
The 8th-grader was asked about the accusations of sexually inappropriate behavior, supposedly by his father, back in September 2022 and, the lawsuit says, it was implied that his father “may have molested children.”
The Charleses also filed their lawsuit on their son’s behalf. Although their son was traumatized and upset, the questioning continued, the lawsuit says. His mother learned from her son that he had been questioned and reached her husband overseas to tell him what was going on.
The lawsuit accuses Kelly and the school district of gross negligence and disregard for the Charleses’ rights, saying they are entitled to unspecified damages, including punitive damages. The lawsuit says Cedric Charles suffered harm to his reputation, lost wages, lost professional opportunities, emotional distress, and “shame and outrage.”
His wife and son suffered along with him, the lawsuit says. Also, the lawsuit says, the couple’s son was subjected to “a hostile educational environment.”
Medley, attorney for the Charles family, also has a lawsuit pending in federal court on behalf of three minors whose parents allege Belcher abused them at Ocean Springs Middle School, where he taught for five days. That case, where three lawsuits were consolidated into one, is filed against Kelly Services and the Ocean Springs School District.
Staff writers Martha Sanchez and Margaret Baker contributed to this report.
This story was originally published July 17, 2025 at 11:03 AM.
