PANAMA CITY, Fla. (WMBB) — A teacher at Rosenwald High School, identified as 53-year-old David Wayne Pittman of Lynn Haven, was arrested on July 22nd by the Bay County Sheriff’s Office following an investigation into lewd and inappropriate contact with a former student through electronic messaging.
According to the Bay County Sheriff’s Office, Pittman had engaged in explicit conversations with a former student via social media. Investigators say Pittman made comments about the student’s body parts and requested lewd photographs. They say Pittman also admitted in the messages that he had been staring at the student’s body parts in class when he was her teacher and wondered if she had noticed him doing so.
Investigators believe Pittman was engaging in “grooming” the victim into further sexually explicit conversation or contact.
Investigators made contact with Pittman at his residence on Saturday, where they say he admitted to sending the messages to his former student. He was placed under arrest and booked into the Bay County Jail on the felony charge of Lewd Conduct Against a Student by an Authority Figure, a second-degree felony.
Bay District Schools released a statement:
At Bay District Schools, we hold our employees to the highest of standards when it comes to their interactions with students and the professional educational services they provide. With that being said, we are incredibly disappointed to hear of this arrest and we trust that our law enforcement partners and the judicial process will work as they always do. Our thoughts are with the victim in this situation and we will be doing all we can to support her and her family during this difficult time. As is customary, the employee is suspended with pay while we complete our contractually-required procedures and await the outcome of the judicial process.
