Police have arrested a 35-year-old Port St. Lucie High School chemistry teacher who's accused of having sex with a student.
Tiffany Michelle Geliga faces two counts of sex assault by persons 24 years or older on a victim 16- or 17-years-old.
Police said they began investigating after school administrators told a school resource officer that they had spoken to a 17-year-old student who told them he had relations with Geliga.
In late April 2017 or early May 2017, the teenager alleges he met Geliga off campus and had sex in Geliga's car on two separate occasions.
Geliga is married and has four children, according to neighbors, who said they're in disbelief.
“She seemed to be a very good mother to her four children," a neighbor who wanted to stay anonymous said. "The family seemed to be very happy.”
Bob Marsh lived across from Geliga for the last several years and said he never noticed anything suspicious about her.
“Their kids play with my grandkids," Marsh said. "It's disappointing to hear anybody who messes with kids. It's shocking. It's heartbreaking."
Police said they conducted a controlled call between the teacher and teenager which confirmed that the pair had sexual relations.
"We have no evidence to suggest that anything illegal happened on school grounds," said Port St. Lucie Det. Sgt. Joe Norkus.
The initial investigation by the school began after a concerned mom contacted administrators when she discovered two missing incoming calls on her family's home phone.
"She recognized the name but couldn't think of what it was. She looked in Skyward, which is a computer database for St. Lucie County Schools, and she recognized the teacher in the Skyward account as the same name coming in...onto the home telephone," Sgt. Norkus said.
"She then went and looked into her son's text messages and saw that same telephone number again. So she started looking there more and more, started questioning her child, become very concerned and at that point alerted the school administrators," Sgt. Norkus said.
That student told administrators that he believed that another student was involved with Geliga. "And it was that child, that second child that acknowledged to having sex with that teacher on two occasions," Sgt. Norkus said.
Geliga was arrested and booked into the St. Lucie County Jail. She has since bonded out.
The St. Lucie County School District released the following statement:
St. Lucie Public Schools is aware that an employee has been arrested amid allegations of inappropriate conduct with a student. This individual is non-reappointed for the coming school year and has been placed on temporary duty assignment away from students while the investigation continues.
Allegations of this sort are a serious breach of ethics. Such behavior is inexcusable and is of great concern to the School District as it is contrary to the mission of providing a safe and caring teaching and learning environment.
