MIAMI – A South Florida teacher has been arrested after an alleged inappropriate relationship with a 17-year-old student.
Jason Meyers, 40, a veteran teacher at Miami Palmetto Senior High School was arrested Thursday on a charge of sexual battery on a minor.
Students at the school told Local 10 News that they were shocked to hear about the arrest.
"He's a really good teacher and he really cared about the student's writing," one girl said.
According to an arrest report, the victim was a student in Meyer's English class for two periods. Detectives said she was interviewed Thursday and admitted that she had sex, received oral sex and performed oral sex on Meyers in November and December.
The teen told police that the sex acts occurred in his classroom after school.
In a letter to parents, Principal Victoria Dobbs said the school was notified of the allegations by the Miami-Dade Schools Police Department.
The arrest came after a preliminary investigation found probable cause.
"When I got a call, I was scared when I first heard something was happening," one parent, Janice Davis, said. "It's scary just to think that something like this is going on in a school."
"It makes you lose confidence in the schooling system," another parent, Matthew Davis, said. "For a person that is in that position that is teaching. You have a job to do, and your job is to not touch these children."
Dobbs said Meyers has been relocated from the Palmetto campus and will not have any contact with students pending the outcome of the investigation.
A source said that Meyers, who is married and has three children, is an English and journalism teacher at the school. His wife is pregnant with his fourth child.
"It's just really upsetting how it's going around and that she works here. And the students who love her now know about it," a student told Local 10 News.
"Miami-Dade County Public Schools takes seriously any allegation of employee impropriety and professional misconduct, especially when it involves children," school district spokeswoman Daisy Gonzalez-Diego said in a statement. "The alleged actions by the teacher are unacceptable and reprehensible."
Gonzalez-Diego said Meyers will be fired.
"The safety and security of our students will always be of first and foremost concern," she said.
Meyers appeared in bond court Friday morning and ordered to be held in jail in lieu of a $75,000 bond.
Meyers does not have a prior arrest record. If he posts bail, he will be placed under house arrest and fitted with a GPS monitor. He is not allowed to have any contact with the high school senior.