Cops: Phone app revealed teacher's illicit texts with boy, 13
GOODYEAR, Ariz. -- Police say a teacher at an Arizona elementary school has been arrested for alleged sexual misconduct with a student after the boy's parents used an app to uncover illicit texts.
Goodyear police say 27-year-old Brittany Zamora was taken into custody Thursday morning.
She's a sixth-grade teacher at Las Brisas Academy Elementary School.
Police say they were notified by the school's principal Wednesday night.
They say the allegations were brought to the principal by the parents of the 13-year-old victim, who reported finding text messages between the teacher and the boy.
Lisa Kutis of the Goodyear Police Department told CBS affiliate KPHO the boy's parents found the texts after using 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.
Police say the text messages indicate an "ongoing" relationship and sexual activity both on and off campus.
The boy told police the relationship started in a classroom chat group where he said Zamora started flirting with him and sending him naked pictures of herself, the station reports.
According to court documents obtained by KPHO, the victim's boy's father on March 22 reported to Buckeye police that Zamora and her husband were harassing him over the phone after Zamora's husband allegedly pleaded with him not to call police.
The husband allegedly asked the boy's father to "meet up" and "settle this," the station reports. Zamora's husband said she had made a big mistake, but loved the kids, the documents say. The father reportedly declined and ended the phone call.
The charging documents reference a second victim who allegedly witnessed some of the sex acts and to whom Zamora also allegedly showed naked pictures of herself, according to KPHO.
Zamora was booked on two counts of molestation of a child, one count of furnishing harmful material and nine counts of sexual conduct with a minor, the station reports.
It's not clear whether she has a lawyer.