Port St. Lucie High School teacher Tiffany Geliga was arrested and charged with sexual misconduct fdue to an inappropriate relationship with a 17-year-old student.
In late January 2018, Geliga pleaded no contest. According to the agreement, she will lose her teaching license. Her sentencing date is scheduled for March.
Geliga was first charged with two counts of sex assault by persons 24 years or older on a victim 16 or 17-year-old in May 2017.
According to Port St. Lucie police spokesman Frank Sabol, the 17-year-old told school administrators that he had sexual relations with Geliga on two separate occasions say police.
According to the student, the pair had sex off-campus in Geliga’s car in late April 2017 or early May 2017. Detectives confirmed the sexual encounters by listening in on a phone call between the victim and Geliga.
Via CBS 12:
The investigation kicked off when a mother of another student noticed calls from Geliga say police. The parent went on to check her son’s cellphone and noticed texts between him and Geliga. The son then told school administrators that he believed another student was having a sexual relationship with the teacher.
Police say Geliga is a chemistry teacher and is listed as being part of the science faculty on the school’s website.
After the unidentified teen made the allegations, police conducted a controlled call between the teacher and teenager to confirm that the pair had sexual relations.
Port St. Lucie public schools released a statement on the matter:
“St. Lucie Public Schools is aware that an employee has been arrested amid allegations of inappropriate conduct with a student. This individual is non-reappointed for the coming school year and has been placed on temporary duty assignment away from students while the investigation continues.
Allegations of this sort are a serious breach of ethics. Such behavior is inexcusable and is of great concern to the School District as it is contrary to the mission of providing a safe and caring teaching and learning environment,” the statement read.
This is the latest in a string of teacher sex scandals over the last couple of years. In November, Tennessee teacher Janet Smothers was arrested. Former nutrition teacher LaToya Parker was also arrested for a relationship with a student. Florida teacher Caroline Lawson was charged with sexual assault. 26-year-old Allyson Moran was also arrested for similar crimes. The 23-year-old high school teacher Katherine Ross Ridenhour was also arrested for an inappropriate relationship.
Furthermore, Hunter Day, 22, was also arrested after a sting operation. Megan Kotarski was also arrested on similar charges. Michelle Schiffer, a 23-year-old history teacher in Texas, was also charged and arrested for allegedly having sex with a teenage student. 29-year-old Alyssia Marie Reddy was arrested in Maryland for her crimes in New Jersey. Samantha Fitzgerland, a 28-year-old, was most recently arrested and charged. Jordan Ondish was arrested for her inappropriate relationship with a 19-year-old, while 28-year-old Samantha Fitzpatrick was arrested on similar charges.
Nicole Marie Andrews was arrested as well. 32-year-old Jessica Langford was arrested and charged with sexual assault-related crimes as well. A teacher from Oregon, Andrea Baber, was accused of having a sexual relationship with a student. Robin Dunlap, a teacher in Florida, was arrested for sending illicit photos to a 15-year-old boy in Texas. Teacher and tennis coach Jennifer Olajire-Aro was also charged. 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. 23-year-old Darci Lake was arrested for an inappropriate relationship.
Valeria Costadoni was also arrested due to a relationship with her student. 40-year-old Kisha Nuckols was arrested for having sex with a student, too. Hilary Dattilo, a 30-year-old Ohio high school teacher, has been accused of having a sexual relationship with a female student. 30-year-old Missouri teacher Elizabeth Morgan was also arrested on similar charges. Trisha Anderson Rogers, a 47-year-old former student teacher at a North Carolina middle school was sentenced to eight months in prison after pleading guilty to soliciting a young student for sex. 39-year-old Texas teacher Marisela Winn was also charged for her relationship with a student. Gabrielle Bauman who admitted to having a relationship with a student was only sentenced to probation. 29-year-old Dori Meyers has denied accusations against her about a relationship with an underage student.
Geliga’s Facebook page, which has since been deleted, says she is from Roanoke Rapids, North Carolina. Furthermore, before living in Port St. Lucie, her Facebook said she previously lived in West Melbourne, Florida, and in San Antonio, Texas.
