GOODYEAR, AZ (KTVK) — Goodyear police have arrested a teacher for alleged sexual misconduct with a 13-year-old student.
Police say 27-year-old Brittany Zamora was taken into custody Wednesday.
She was a sixth-grade teacher at Las Brisas Academy near 182nd Avenue and Broadway in Goodyear.
Police say a parent found text messages between Zamora and the male student, indicating sexual activity both on and off campus.
“The text messages found are sexual in nature that allege an ongoing relationship between the two,” said Lisa Kutis with the Goodyear Police Department.
Kutis said the parents of the 13-year-old alleged victim used an app to monitor his phone.
“As a result of an app, which alerted the parents to some keywords, they then checked the cell phone and discovered these text messages,” Kutis said.
The parent told the principal about the incident, and the principal called the police.
“They froze different screens off the student’s phone,” said Interim Superintendent Dr. Richard Rundhaug, speaking of the alleged victim’s parents.
“We made arrangements for the teacher to come to school today for a meeting with the principal, and the arrest took place before that meeting could take place,” Rundhaug said.
The victim said the relationship started in a classroom chat group where he said Zamora started flirting with him and sending him naked pictures of herself.
According to court documents, the victim’s father made another report to Buckeye police on March 22 stating that Zamora and her husband were harassing him over the phone.
The victim’s father told police that he received a phone call from Zamora and her husband pleading with him not to contact the police. During that phone call, Zamora’s husband got on the phone and told the victim’s father that Zamora made a big mistake but that she loved the kids, documents state.
The victim’s father told officers that Zamora’s husband asked to handle the situation informally and they they should ‘meet up’ and ‘settle this’. The victim’s father declined and ended the phone call.
Documents also mention a second victim who the first victim said witnessed some of the sex acts. Police spoke to the second victim who also said that Zamora had showed him naked pictures of herself.
Zamora was booked into Fourth Avenue Jail on two counts of molestation of a child, one count of furnishing harmful material and nine counts of sexual conduct with a minor Wednesday night.
“There was an automated message but it didn’t say a whole lot,” said Las Brisas Academy parent Andrea Meza. She said she got a recorded phone call, saying there was an incident at the school. On the school’s website, they posted a brief letter that went home with parents, saying there was a “reported an allegation involving a staff member and a student.”
Just a few weeks ago, a Florida middle school teacher was arrested after police said she had a “sexual relationship” with an eighth-grade student.
