BRADENTON, Fla. (WFLA) – A teacher in Bradenton is facing several charges after police say she sent inappropriate messages and engaged in sexual intercourse with a teenage student.
Bradenton police say they were contacted by the Broach School back in April about a complaint involving 31-year-old Kassandra Moore, who had been a teacher at the school.
A detective from the police department responded to the school and was given a copy of conversations between Moore and a 15-year-old student. Police say the messages were sent through Instagram chat and were “of a flirtatious manner.”
Investigators then spoke with the student involved. They say he cooperated and showed them several screenshots of “lewd selfie-style” pictures that Moore had sent him. According to the police department, Moore was wearing lingerie in the photos and “had her body parts exposed and posed in a sexual manner.”
The student also told detectives he and Moore arranged to meet at a park on numerous occasions and had sex, the police department says.
Detectives say they later found out Moore tried to get another teacher at the Broach School to help her by serving as an alibi. She also reached out to a former student to see if it was possible to delete messages and images from another person’s locked cell phone, police say.
Officers took Moore into custody Monday morning. She has been charged with four counts of lewd and lascivious battery and one count of transmission of harmful material to a minor.
8 On Your Side reached out to Children’s Educational Services, the non-profit in charge of the Broach School, and they released this statement:
“Our students and families are our top priority and we are deeply saddened by these allegations. Once we were notified of the allegations, we immediately reported them to the appropriate authorities and the teacher was terminated. All employees of CES are thoroughly vetted and complete a thorough FDLE background screening prior to employment. We take these allegations very seriously and are doing everything we can to facilitate the investigation. Due to the confidentiality nature involving a minor child/student and to maintain the integrity of the ongoing investigation, we are prohibited from further comment,” said Rich Wead, President of Children’s Educational Services, Inc.