Suzanne Owen, a 35-year-old teacher at Evangelical Christian in south Fort Myers, has been charged, arrested and fired after being accused of having a sexual relationship with a student.
According to the Lee County Sheriff’s Office, Owen and the student had one sexual encounter and exchanged text messages for several weeks. She was charged her with custodial sexual battery, a first-degree felony. Police say Owen and the student met for sex off campus last week and she’d been texting with the student for several weeks beforehand.
Owen, who was a Bible and Spanish teacher, was fired. Her husband, Jonathan Owen, is a soccer coach at Evangelical Christian, and her three children are students at the school.
via Miami Herald:
Fort Myers station WINK posted a Wednesday afternoon statement to parents from school headmaster John Hunte:
Dear ECS Family,
Late this afternoon, a female Upper School teacher admitted to sexual misconduct with a student. The teacher has been terminated effective immediately.
We are deeply saddened and express our sincere sympathy to any and all victims of sexual assault. We have and will continue to cooperate with law enforcement during this investigation. ECS was not aware of the report of the incident until late today. I wanted you to be aware of this as I anticipate it to be reported by the news media.
Please be in prayer for all of the families involved.
Over the course of just a few months, educators across the country were arrested for entering into an inappropriate relationship with their students, Tennessee teacher Janet Smothers, LaToya Parker, Florida teacher Caroline Lawson, 26-year-old Allyson Moran and Katherine Ross Ridenhour were all arrested on similar charges.
The list goes on to include 22-year-old Oklahoma science teacher Hunter Day, 28-year-old teacher Megan Kotarski, 23-year-old history teacher Michelle Schiffer, 29-year-old Alyssia Marie Reddy, special education teacher Jordan Ondish and 28-year-old Samantha Fitzpatrick have all been allegedly carrying on inappropriate relationships with their students.
In addition, 31-year-old Nicole Marie Andrews, 32-year-old Jessica Langford, 29-year-old Andrea Baber, 27-year-old Robin Dunlap, 27-year-old Jennifer Olajire-Aro have also been charged with these charges.
42-year-old Heather Butts of California was arrested on a second-degree felony charge, Nancy Leigh Ann Brann, a former Christian school teacher, was arrested for having sex with a student, Coine Audiat pleaded no contest to having sex with a minor in 2016 and 23-year-old Darci Lake was arrested for an inappropriate relationship. 27-year-old Brittany Zamora from Arizona was arrested on similar charges.
