A former teacher at Rogers Middle school has been arrested for giving a student a smart phone with apps set up with the intent of her sending naked pictures and videos to other students. According to the Hillsborough County Sheriff's office, that teacher would take the phone to view the images himself.
Michael Geist, 31, was arrested on Monday night.
According to the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office, he gave the phone to the female student in April of this year.
In May of 2016 staff at Rogers Middle School were told about inappropriate behavior from two concerned students and notified Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office.
"They just said something didn't seem right between this teacher and a student." Tanya Arja, spokesperson for the school district said.
Geist resigned from the school when the investigation began.
In a memo prepared by the school's principal, presented to Geist in a meeting on May 2, a history of disturbing behavior is uncovered. The memo discusses allegations of emails Geist sent from his private account to students during weekends, discussions he had about porn in class, inappropriate lunches and meetings with female students, allowing a girl to twerk (dance provocatively) in front of the class while telling her to" keep going", there's an allegation of giving a child cake laced with pot and the incident involving the cell phone.
Arja says many of the allegations were addressed at the time they occurred and were not fire-able offenses. Other incidents were uncovered during the cell phone investigation.
Geist worked at the school for less than 2 1/2 months. Prior to that, he was a long term sub at Van Burren Middle School.
He's being charged with Lewd and Lascivious Conduct (Solicit).
Geist bonded out of jail early Tuesday morning.
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