Ripley, MS—
FAST FACTS:
- Teacher resigns at specially-called School Board Meeting
- Investigation begins into "sexting"
- Sexual battery charges filed
dennis.turner@wreg.com
(Ripley, MS 1/17/2012) Another local High School teacher is out of a job tonight, after being charged with having sex with one of her students.
It's all people can talk about in the town of Ripley, Mississippi. That's in Tippah County, just about an hour and a half east of Memphis.
37 year old Melissa Mathis is charged with two Counts of sexual battery by a person of authority.
It's left just about everybody shocked.
Melissa Mathis was said to be in her first year of teaching English three at Ripley High School, after several years of teaching tenth graders.
Parents tell us she had a tough, no-nonsense reputation.
But now she's got a new reputation after her arrest for sexual battery of a seventeen year old student. "I think it's atrocious. I think somebody in that position should never take advantage of her students." said Sheila Lence.
We're told the case broke after a compliant to authorities at the school who contacted the local Department of Human Services.
Detectives found evidence she had and sex with and had been "sexting", sending pictures to the student who admitted what happened to authorities.
Mathis declined to talk to investigators.
"Based on the statements from the student, it was two occurrences that happened within a week of each other." said Investigator Jason Willis of the Tippah County Sheriff's Department.
Based on the student's statement alone, detectives had enough evidence to charge Mathis with sexual battery by a person of authority.
Mathis was allowed to resign from her job at a specially-called School Board meeting late on a Friday afternoon. Superintendent Frank Campbell hasn't returned our phone calls seeking comment and has reportedly declined all comment on the matter.
Word around town is, that Mathis had shown greater interest than average in some of her students for some time, but investigators say, at the moment, they don't believe any more than one student is involved.
"At this time we don't have any reason to believe that there's any more involved. Just the one student and that's pretty much going to be it we think." said Willis.
Just in case, her personnel records have been subpoenaed from other districts to determine if she's ever been accused before.
Parents say, it's just plain wrong. "A lot of rumors have gone around about who the students were and the ones I've heard about were students who were struggling in that class and probably felt that if they didn't do what she asked, they would fail."
Mathis can get up to thirty years per count. Why so much? It's due to Mississippi's law that forbids adult authority figures, like teachers, police officers and the like from having sexual contact with anyone who's not an adult.
