School Counselor Arrested On Sex Charge

A middle-school guidance counselor appeared before a judge Wednesday on charges he forced himself sexually on a child.

Robert Allan Cowan, 47, was arrested Tuesday afternoon on a charge of sexual battery to a child under the age of 12.

According to the arrest report, the victim told detectives she was forced to perform oral sex on Cowan and he touched her inappropriately.

Cowan has been ordered held without bond. School officials said if he is released, he would not be allowed in a job with access to children while the criminal case is proceeding.

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According to school records, Cowan work as a guidance counselor at several schools in Duval County from 1993 to 2006, when he left to become assistant principal at Yulee Elementary School in Nassau County. He returned to Duval in 2007 to become assistant principal at Arlington Middle School. He had just returned to Fort Caroline Middle as a guidance counselor on Monday.

Cowan's neighbors in his Northside neighborhood said he is married with one child and they told Channel 4's Dan Leveton that they have never noticed anything out of the ordinary. They said Cowan and his family are easy-going.