A timeline of Hector Manley's sex crimes against Parkside Elementary students in Florida

From aide to teacher

Aug. 14, 2015: Hector Manley is officially welcomed in a “Friday Focus” school newsletter to Collier County's Parkside Elementary School as a Pre-K assistant.

Aug. 15, 2015: According to Manley’s plea, he begins assaulting children on his first day on the job.

2016-17 school year: Manley earns a temporary teaching certificate and is promoted to resource teacher. His salary is $41,280.

May 3, 2017: Manley's annual evaluation awards a score of “effective,” the second-highest he can receive.

2017-18 school year: Manley becomes a second-grade teacher; his salary rises to $42,600.

Fall 2017

Teachers notice that Manley, who had been coming regularly to the teachers' lounge to eat lunch, switches to eating in his room with a small group of girls.

Oct. 4, 2017: Manley and his class are featured on local TV news when he provides photos of children during a science lesson testing out magnets on his “robot legs.”

Winter 2018

January 2018: A girl is molested by Manley on the soccer field at school, she told investigators in March 2019.

February: Manley molests her again this month, she said.

Spring 2018

March 8, 2018: Assistant Principal Barbara Fields meets with parents who have a child in Manley’s classroom, according to emails between Principal Tamie Stewart and Manley. The child was being investigated for a classroom/school infraction. The parents swear and shout at Fields. Fields calls an officer to intervene.

March 9: Stewart emails Manley about the previous day’s incident with Fields and reprimands him for the way he handled a conversation with the parents. Manley responds, thanking Stewart for the clarification and says he will follow protocol from now on.

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April: An article on Manley runs in University of Tampa's alumni magazine. Manley states that he actively recruits children for his soccer team.

April: Manley begins molesting another student regularly, the girl tells detectives after his arrest.

Spring: Teachers go to administrators with their concerns about Manley (frequent parties, lack of discipline, teaching with lights off), and administrators begin conducting surprise observations, according to teacher, administrator and staff sworn statements later taken by Collier County Sheriff's investigators. There is no record of this in his district file.

Spring: Per the same sworn statements, administrators Stewart and Fields meet with Manley after it comes to their attention that he is rewarding a student for Snapchatting him photos of herself and messages. Nearly every teacher interviewed by detectives talks about this in their sworn statements. No record of this is in his personnel file or in any emails between administrators and Manley, according to public records requests.

May 3: Date cited by Collier Sheriff's Detective Megan Noel as when Manley attended a meeting regarding inappropriate contact with a student through Snapchat. Manley is told to stop contacting students through social media. He does not appear to be further disciplined.

2018-19 school year: Manley is moved to a first-grade classroom teaching position; his salary rises again, to $44,570.

Fall 2018

Aug. 22, 2018: Manley emails Principal Stewart about changing the name of his soccer team to “Parkside United” and getting funding for uniforms in school colors. The name change and color were approved; it is not clear where the funding came from.

Sept. 6: Manley sends a list of Parkside students who are on his soccer team to Stewart and their practice schedule. The list spans two grades and includes 15 names, as well as the names of several athletes' siblings who sit on the sidelines at practice.

Oct. 16: Stewart sends Manley an email titled “Grades.” In it, she details his failure to input grades correctly and the severity of the issue. Manley says he understands and will correct this immediately.

Oct. 23: Stewart reprimands Manley in an email for sending a soccer player with his school security badge and key to run an errand for him, telling him it is unsafe and a violation of protocol. Manley responds, “Thank you, I will not send students with my ID again.”

Oct. 25: Stewart prepares a document called “HM PERFORMANCE DISCUSSION - notes for meeting.” The document outlines concerns delivering content in the classroom and adhering to school procedures. It states that if Manley does not improve, he could face termination.

Oct. 30: Stewart and Assistant Principal Fields meet with Manley to discuss performance issues. He is warned he could be fired if he does not improve.

Nov. 9: Manley is out “sick” for Friday and Monday after his request for time off for those dates is denied because they were blocked out in the teachers' contract. He later is found to have spent the weekend participating in a 24-hour Tough Mudder competition.

Nov. 30: Parkside hosts a food truck during lunch. A third-grade girl shares an allegation against Manley with tutor/recess supervisor Stephanie Lahens.

After Manley's arrest, Lahens tells investigators in an interview, “[REDACTED] told me that, she said, 'Mr. Manley touches people’s private parts.'"

Lahens says she told three staff members, including teacher Priscilla Rodriguez, what she heard, and Rodriguez said to talk to administration immediately. Lahens says she reported what she heard to Fields, and Fields walked her over to Assistant Principal Holley Holland. Lahens says Holland said she would take care of it.

Rodriguez told investigators that she followed up with Fields later that day, who said she would take care of it.

Nov. 30: In March, Fields tells detectives that the tutor did come to talk to her one day in October or November during food truck day but was so vague about what she heard children saying about Manley that Fields could do nothing about the report. And in fact, Fields says, she and Holland didn’t even consider it a real report.

Nov. 30: Holland tells investigators Fields approached her and said the tutor told her she overheard some girls. Holland says she told Fields to talk to those girls and Fields said she didn't know who they were. She says Fields said she'd take care of it.

Dec. 14-18: Manley is told he is being demoted after the fall semester ends.

Winter 2019

After Manley is reassigned to a support position, he is given an office next to a second-grade teacher's room. She tells sheriff’s detectives he would visit her room uninvited and had one boy he liked to pat on the back and the boy would flinch away. She asked the student if he was uncomfortable and he said no. She says she brought her concerns to her team leader.

Jan. 1 - March 1: According to his criminal plea, Manley molests three additional students during this time frame.

Early 2019: Manley molests a boy in the computer lab, pinching his genitals. Manley threatens to kill the boy's mother if anyone finds out.

Jan. 31: Stewart emails Manley about his employment for the following school year, suggesting he take a Pre-K assistant position that is opening up. Manley expresses interest.

February: Manley molests a student-athlete for the last time at soccer practice.

Feb. 25: Manley molests one girl for the first time.

Feb. 27: Manley molests the same girl from Feb. 25 again.

Feb. 28: At 1:20 p.m., Holland receives a text from a teacher who says she has something to tell her. Holland goes to her room. The teacher steps into the hallway to report that a girl said she and another student were molested by Manley last year. Holland tells Stewart, and they call the district's Human Resources department and Parkside’s school resource officer. An HR representative instructs Stewart to ask Manley to gather his personal things and keys and immediately report to the administrative center. Stewart and Holland call the Florida Department of Children and Families.

Friday, March 1: Collier County Sheriff's Office files an arrest report for Manley. He is arrested on suspicion of lewd and lascivious acts with two underage girls. Holley Holland is announced as 2019 district assistant principal of the year.

March 4: Manley is recommended for termination of employment by Superintendent Kamela Patton.

March 5: Manley turns himself in to the Naples Jail Center.

March 13: “He shouldn’t have been allowed in school for three more months...with access to kids,” teacher Rodriguez tells detectives.

March 23: According to documents filed in the criminal suit, Manley’s charges are amended; additional counts of molestation and sexual battery are added to the charge sheet.

2021

September 2021: According to documents filed in the criminal suit, Manley's charges are amended again. He is eventually charged with 20 counts of lewd and lascivious behavior and three counts of sexual battery that took place between August 15, 2017, and March 1, 2019. A total of 21 children are listed by initials.

December 2021: Collier County Public Schools Superintendent Kamela Patton is announced as Florida's Superintendent of the Year.

Early 2022

Jan. 21, 2022: Manley pleads no contest to 20 counts of molestation of a child under 12 and is sentenced to 25 years in prison, with credit for 1,000-plus days in Naples Jail Center.

For this investigation, the Naples Daily News / The News-Press examined hundreds of emails from faculty, administration and staff; teacher and administrators' personnel files and disciplinary records; weekly staff bulletins; notes from administrative meetings; school handbooks and teacher guidelines; sworn statements taken by Collier County Sheriff’s investigators; files and audio from the criminal case against Manley and a civil case against Collier County Public Schools, and interviewed current and former Parkside students and their parents.

This article originally appeared on Naples Daily News: Timeline: Hector Manley's sexual abuse of Parkside Elementary students