A 25-year-old woman has quit her job as a Spanish teacher at Michigan Collegiate High School after allegations arose she had a sexual relationship with a 16-year-old male student over a six-month span last school year.
Carlie Lockwood, spokeswoman for Michigan Educational Personnel Services, which is the employer for the Warren charter school, said Tuesday that the teacher was given the choice to go on paid leave during the investigation, but she immediately quit instead. The name of the teacher was not released.
“We’ve had no contact with the employee – the former employee – since then,” Lockwood said. “We’re just waiting to hear what the outcome is.”
Lockwood said the student told school officials about the alleged relationship two weeks ago. School officials in turn contacted MEP Services, which then alerted police.
The alleged relationship began while the student and teacher were at Conner Creek Academy East in Roseville. That building closed and all of its students and teachers moved to Michigan Collegiate at the start of the new school year.
Generally, the age of consent in Michigan is 16, but state law stipulates that teachers can’t have sexual relationships with students under 18, even if the student is a willing participant.
Lockwood said that the student in this case said the sex was consensual.
The student said the sexual encounters occurred in Detroit, never on school grounds. Detroit police are investigating. Charges have not yet been filed.
“We’ve been working closely with the police since the day we found out,” Lockwood said. “We want to get to the bottom of this.”
Don’t most teachers have enough time to hit Happy Hours at the local bars? Do they need to continue to harass their students?