Teacher arrested for having sexual relationship with a student

Collier County Sheriff’s Office arrested a Gulf Coast Charter Academy South teacher on Tuesday after an investigation determined he was having a sexual relationship with a student.

Joseph Mejia, 37, of Bonita Springs, is charged with four counts of lewd and lascivious battery on a victim age 12-16 by a suspect who is 18 or older and one count of lewd and lascivious molestation on a victim age of 12-16 by a suspect who is 18 or older.

The arrest report states Mejia went to the victim’s house when she stayed home sick from school and had sex in the living room. Before that, the report said Mejia picked the victim up and drove her to a dead end street for sexual activity. The report even said they had a sexual interaction in the classroom.

The investigation began Monday after the victim’s mother reported that she had found sexually explicit text messages between her daughter and Mejia on her daughter’s phone.

Mejia was a technology teacher at the K-8 school. The school told WINK News when they found out about the allegations, it immediately fired Mejia and alerted police.

“The health and safety of our students, as well as the trust of our community, remains the highest priority of our school,” the charter school said in a statement.