St. Pete middle school teacher arrested for molesting girls

A St. Petersburg middle school teacher was arrested Wednesday for molesting multiple girls under the age of 18.

Police detectives arrested 41-year-old Joseph Zavalnak shortly after 8 a.m. in Largo. He is a teacher at Meadowlawn Middle School.

Zavalnak faces five counts of lewd and lascivious molestation involving three victims.  According to police, the victims were all girls over the age of 12, but under the age of 18.

Police say two of the incidents occurred towards the end of 2016, and the investigation led to the discovery of another 2013 incident.

No other details have been released at this time.