Pensacola teacher charged with having sex with student

Posted 8:05AM on Tuesday 5th February 2002 ( 23 years ago )

PENSACOLA, Fla. - A 32-year-old high school math teacher turned herself into Escambia County sheriff's deputies Monday after she was accused of having sex with a 15-year-old former student. Melissa Daw, who teaches at Tate High School, was charged with lewd and lascivious acts, interfering with child custody and failure to report suspected or known child abuse. Sheriff's spokeswoman Rhonda Ray said deputies, acting on a tip, went to Daw's house on Jan. 6 and found the boy there. In a Jan. 29 interview, he told investigators he and Daw had consensual sex, Ray said. Daw told her principal she was accused of a similar action at her last job in Mobile County, Ala., Doug Garber, Escambia's personnel director, told WEAR-TV. She resigned from her Alabama job last May and was hired by Escambia a short time later. She passed the school district's background check, Garber said. She has no record of arrest in Mobile County. "We had nothing to indicate this on her records, application or anything of that nature," Garber said. She has been suspended with pay pending a review by the county school board. Daw, who was released on $15,000 bond, does not have a listed phone number and could not be reached for comment Monday. She denied the accusations when questioned by investigators.

http://accesswdun.com/article/2002/2/203152