Photo: Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office
One of the girls had nixed plans to go to college in the hope that French would leave his wife, according to the school board report. Each girl alleged he’d confessed his love to them, and one said he talked about traveling with her to Alaska or Colorado.
After the girls went to French’s wife with photos and texts to back up their allegations, according to the school board’s administrative report, the wife told district officials, who then launched their investigation.
French, 30, was arrested in September on two felony counts of unlawful sexual activity, theJacksonville Sheriff’s Officestated in a Facebook post.
French denies having sexual relationships with the girls, according to WJXX.
“He is maintaining his innocence across the board,” said Melinda Patterson, French’s attorney.
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“In March of 2018, the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office received information from the Duval County School Board Police Department in reference to a possible sex crime,” according to the agency. “The Special Assault Unit began an investigation into the complaint that a Fletcher High School teacher, Corey French, had been previously involved in sexual relationships with two former students.”
“It was revealed that both victims had consensual sexual relations with French while he was an active teacher employed at Fletcher High School between the years of 2015 and 2017,” alleges the sheriff’s office.
The school district learned on March 19 of this year that French, who taught science, was involved in “an alleged inappropriate sexual relationship” involving “one or more students,” and he “was immediately pulled from his classroom responsibility and assigned to a temporary role with no student contact,” the district said in a statement toWJAX.
French resigned on May 2 “upon notification of the district’s recommendation of termination,” according to the district, which referred the matter to the state Department of Education’s Office of Professional Practices.
French is free on bond and has pleaded not guilty to the allegations.
PEOPLE’s calls to the school district were not immediately returned.
According to the district statement, French’s wife, Alexandra French, a kindergarten teacher in the district, was arrested “in a related matter” on a misdemeanor charge of resisting arrest without violence. Police said she tried to stop them when they tried to arrest her husband.
Both of the Frenches pleaded not guilty to resisting arrest charges on Oct. 24, reports WJXX.
Patterson, the attorney for the couple, said they were innocent of that allegation.
source: people.com
