Brian Smith | Plainfield police
(PLAINFIELD) A southwest suburban teacher has been charged with sexually assaulting a 17-year-old female student at the school where he taught, police said.
Brian Smith, 32, faces one count of criminal sexual assault, a Class 1 felony, according to a statement from Plainfield police.
The sexual encounter took place in February in a storage room adjacent to Smith’s classroom at the Plainfield High School Central Campus, police said.
But Smith and the teenager had been communication through various social media applications for about a month prior to the incident, police said. Some of the messages were sexual in nature and included both text messages and photographs.
About a week after the sexual encounter, officials were notified by an acquaintance of the student and the girl was subsequently interviewed by investigators, police said. She gave a detailed account of the encounter.
On Thursday, Smith confessed to police and was taken into custody, police said.
“At this point in the investigation, it appears that this was an isolated incident,” a statement from Plainfield Community Consolidated School District 202 said.
Smith had been employed as a science teacher with School District 202 since August 2014, according to the statement He has not been in class since the morning of Feb. 23, and a substitute teacher has assumed his duties.
He will not be permitted on school grounds and has been directed to have no contact with staff or students pending the determination of his employent status by the superintendent and the Board of Education, according to the statement.
Counseling services will be available to students beginning Monday, according to the school district.
Anyone who may have additional information for the investigation is asked contact Plainfield police at (815) 436-6544.
Smith, of the 3700 block of Saratoga Drive in Joliet, was ordered held at the Will County Adult Detention Facility on a $600,000 bond, according to the Will County state’s attorney’s office. If convicted, he faces up to 15 years in prison.
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