PANAMA CITY BEACH — Investigators have arrested a Panama City Beach man after teachers at Arnold High School spotted him hiding in the women’s bathroom watching young children from the day care on campus use the restroom, according to the Bay County Sheriff’s Office.
Melvin Gullion, 52, brought a friend’s grandchild to the day care Monday morning and, after leaving the child with day care workers, asked where the bathroom was located. He allegedly did not enter the men’s bathroom, but instead went into the women’s bathroom and hid in the handicap stall, BCSO reported.
The day care workers, accompanied by a 14-year-old assistant, brought a group of children into the women’s bathroom to use the facilities, and one of the teachers spotted Gullion in the stall with his pants and underwear down around his ankles, according to law enforcement. Gullion was allegedly peering out between the cracks in the stall door and masturbating as the teacher confronted him, officials said.
Gullion got dressed and ran out of the bathroom and left the campus, investigators reported.
Contact was made with a friend who later drove Gullion back to Arnold to meet with BCSO investigators.
Investigators spoke with Gullion and arrested him. Gullion, of Panama City Beach, was charged with exposure of sexual organs, voyeurism and lewd and lascivious exhibition.
Gullion was previously arrested on one count of lewd and lascivious acts in the presence of a child under 16 years of age in 1993. The charge was dropped.
In an emailed statement, Pamela Fleege, executive director of Early Education and Care Inc., said no children saw Gullion in the restroom.
The agency has five classrooms at Arnold High: two Head Start and three Early Head Start. The agency’s procedure is to check all bathrooms before the children are allowed to use them and they are accompanied by an adult, she said.