A married Florida high school teacher was arrested for having a sexual relationship with one of her students and charged with sexual assault of a minor, the Pensacola News Journal reports. Meghan Mary Rodriguez, 37, taught at Navarre High School in Santa Rosa County when she initiated a sexual relationship with her 17-year-old student. Now, she’s facing second-degree felony charges.
- The relationship began via text message. The boy told authorities that while the texts between the pair were initially platonic, they soon turned sexual. It’s believed that Rodriguez was the one who initiated the shift in tone.
- Police received an anonymous tip about their rendezvous. Authorities were alerted to reports that Rodriguez had sex with one of her students last summer. The student was eventually revealed to be the boy in question, who told police they were intimate in one of the school’s classrooms when he attended a “summer practice” session in 2019.
- The student insisted he only slept with Rodriguez once. He told authorities that the incident was a one-off and that he immediately regretted it afterward. When police approached Rodriguez about the accusations, she admitted kissing a student but said that’s as far as it went.
- The student was afraid Rodriguez would fail him. According to the arrest report, the boy admitted he was worried about his grades and that he was even more stressed after Rodriguez told him that another teacher knew about their sexual relationship and didn’t like him. He worried that she would fail him if he didn’t go along with the affair.
- Rodriguez was held in county jail without bond. It remains to be seen how she will be sentenced or if she will spend any time in prison long-term.
