Van Buren County teacher chargedwith having sex with female student
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The suspect, Johnny Lee McElroy, 54, is being held at Van Buren County Jail under $495,000 bond on nine counts of sexual battery by an authority figure, each count carrying three to six years in prison. He has reportedly admitted to the long-term sexual affair with the now 15-year-old girl and has resigned his job with the Van Buren County School System. Lawmen say there are more charges to come against the longtime teacher.
McElroy was arrested Friday morning after an investigation reportedly revealed the extent to which the high school GED teacher had groomed the teen.
?He took advantage at every available opportunity,? said District Attorney General Dale Potter. ?He was her sixth-grade teacher and had known her from that time. The process had been ongoing for more than a year.?
As for the charges, arrest warrants against McElroy spell out incidents of sexual contact between him and the 14-year-old, now turned 15, running from spring to fall of 2005. The range of sexual contact alleged in the warrants runs the gamut, from touching and kissing to various types of sexual encounters.
Lawmen allege at least one of the encounters occurred in McElroy?s classroom during school hours while an episode of touching and kissing occurred in the hallway of the school where the teen is a sophomore, just outside the administrative offices. More sexual episodes are cataloged in the warrants as occurring on school grounds, mostly inside McElroy?s classroom. However, they do not indicate school was in progress during those incidents.
One off-campus incident, warrants say, had the girl sexually touching McElroy while they were returning from a ?rewards? trip from Chattanooga. Another detailed an encounter at the city park where there was sexual contact while the two were attending a birthday party. And, the last of the charges chronicle an incident where the teen was supposed to be spending the night with a friend but instead left with McElroy for an encounter on Baker Mountain.
While the encounters were numerous, Potter said it was not from a lack of supervision.
?The harm to the child could have been much worse if it wasn?t for the vigilance of her mother,? Potter said, noting the girl?s mother had strict rules for the teen. ?It was just the defendant was taking advantage of times when the girl was not at home and under the direct supervision of her mother. The mother was a good parent.?
According to Van Buren County Director of Schools Neal O?Neal, McElroy had no past incidents on his record, noting he had taught at Van Buren County Middle School before moving on to the high school. McElroy had worked two stints with Van Buren schools, his most recent beginning in 1998. Prior to that time, he had worked with the system up until 1983.
O?Neal does not know what McElroy was doing for the 15 years between teaching jobs. He does not believe he was in the teaching profession.
As for additional charges, prosecutors say there will likely be a new wave of felony counts brought against McElroy in the near future, all dealing with the same alleged victim.