Teacher Charged For Having Sexual Relationship With A Student
A Pennsylvania teacher was charged for a sexual relationship with a student, making this the second case of sexual misconduct at the school.
There is a common belief that teachers are supposed to be like second parents to children when they are in school. President Biden even remarked on this recently during the White House’s ceremony for this year’s Teachers of the Year. But at the same time, teachers are often the culprits of deviant acts against children, even forming highly inappropriate relationships with students. This was the case in point at the Wilmington Area High School, where a Pennsylvania teacher is being charged for having a sexual relationship with one of her students.
The New York Post has reported that the Pennsylvania teacher, 26-year-old Olivia Ortz was arrested and taken into custody on Monday, May 16th for a sexual relationship she had engaged in with one of her female students. Ortz was a choir director at the Wilmington Area High School in New Wilmington, PA. The inappropriate relationship was said to have been reported to school officials by Ortz’s husband.
The choir director’s husband had done previously freelance work for the high school. New Castle News reported that Cody Ortz had directed the school’s musical earlier this year. When he returned home from a recent trip to Florida, he found incriminating messages on his wife’s iPad. The Pennsylvania teacher had been communicating with the 17-year-old female student through Spotify messaging. After learning of this, he immediately alerted the school’s principal, and they together filed a complaint with Childline, who alerted authorities.
Within the police’s investigation, they discovered hundreds of messages shared between the Pennsylvania and teacher, incriminating her of the crime. Allegedly, the pair used code words when chatting, in case their messages were ever found. School officials immediately put Ortz on suspended leave, but she resigned from her position at a later date.
When the authorities initially put out the warrant for her arrest at the beginning of last weekend, Ortz originally refused to turn herself in. The Pennsylvania teacher was reportedly seen during the time performing in a concert over the weekend. Eventually, the report says that she turned herself in, at the advice of her attorney.
During the investigation, authorities interviewed the unnamed student, who told police she was in love with the teacher. The student admitted to the sexual relationship and told authorities she would rendezvous with the Pennsylvania teacher when her husband was away. She even disclosed that she and the teacher had remained in contact with each other after the allegations, stating that she went back to the educator’s home to console her after the husband’s findings.
The Pennsylvania teacher posted her $150,000 bail and has a hearing set on May 25th. She is charged with two counts of sexual activity with a student. Astonishingly, Ortz is the second music director within the same school to be caught up in similar legal charges for sexual misconduct. Her predecessor, Jonathan Priano, is also in the middle of a court case for inappropriate behavior with high school students. The 37-year-old allegedly groomed his favorite students, using his position to form relationships with them.
Priano has a pretrial hearing set for June, and Ortz’s case will likely drag out for quite some time as well. At a time when violence among educators is on the rise, it is remarkable to think of what this local community has endured over the last few years. As more and more incidents like this one pertaining to the Pennsylvania teacher continue to occur, it is no wonder more and more parents are pulling their children out of public schools.
