Sarah Elise Porter has been identified as the 24-year-old Spanish teacher at Arapahoe High School in Centennial, Colorado, that was recently arrested and charged for allegedly having a sexual relationship with an underage student.
According to a statement from the Arapahoe County Sheriff’s Office, Porter, 24, was arrested on Friday, March 22.
Porter’s arrest came after a police investigation that was launched after they received an anonymous tip. The Arapahoe County Sheriff’s Office said that the tip came from a student using the Safe2Tell website.
Following her arrest, Porter was taken into custody by police and charged with sexual assault on a child by someone in a position of trust and sexual exploitation of children/pornography/obscene material.
She was held without bond and made her first appearance in court on Monday, March 25. Porter, who has been teaching at Arapahoe High School since August, was placed on administrative.
Porter is just the latest in a string of education officials to be arrested and charged for sex-related crimes.
Since the beginning of 2019 alone, a handful of teachers have been arrested on similar charges, including Beulah High School teacher Kelsie Schmidt in North Dakota, Rancocas Valley Regional High School teacher Alexandra Reiner in New Jersey, and 50-year-old Florida substitute teacher Angela Jean Stanton in Florida. Additionally, Texas teacher Meredith Null was arrested on similar charges.
As for why there has been an increase in teacher’s being charged with sex-related crimes over recent years, studies suggest that smartphones are the primary reason for the spike in illicit relationships, as it allows teachers to communicate with the minors without supervision.
According to a report from the Texas Education Association, smartphones make easy for teachers to privately text and talk with students and also make it possible for teachers and students to share explicit images.
That is all the information that is available at this time. This article will be updated with new and relevant information should it become available at any time. If there is anything that we missed, please feel free to send an email to editor@teamcoed.com and we will respond as soon as possible.