Cheerleading coach charged with sex crime

Cheerleading coach charged with sex crime

Gabriel Falcon
AC360° Writer

An English teacher and cheerleading coach at an Arizona high school has been arrested for having an illicit relationship with a student, police said.

Christie Elliot, 25, was charged with luring a minor for sexual exploitation and sexual conduct with a minor.

According to the Tucson Police Department, Elliot had inappropriate physical contact with a child at Empire High School. Authorities said the child was one of her students, but would not divulge the gender or age of the alleged victim.

Elliot was arrested after the child’s parent found disturbing messages on the student’s cell phone, police said. “The parent reported the messages to the school because they believed the messages were from the child’s English teacher who is also the cheerleading coach,” the police added.


After interviewing the student and Elliot, investigators determined that a crime of a sexual nature had been committed.

“This case illustrates the parental vigilance that is needed to keep parents aware of what is happening in their children’s lives,” the police said.

Calvin Baker, the Vail School District Superintendent, told CNN Elliot was directed to have no further contact with students after the allegations surfaced.

“Once the police concluded their investigation, we judged there was sufficient evidence to make the decision that she would not be coming back to a classroom in the school district,” Baker said. “She was on a temporary non-renewing contract so it wasn’t necessary for us to terminate her employment. She simply has not and will not be offered a contact for next year.”

Attempts to contact an attorney for Elliot were not successful.

Source: http://ac360.blogs.cnn.com/2010/05/18/cheerleading-coach-charged-with-sex-crime/