King High Teacher Accused of Sex With a Student

It is something we hear all to often, a high school teacher at King High School, in Tampa, is being accused of having sex with a student.

Jeffrey Halle, 32, was an English teacher in the school’s International Baccalaureate program. He is accused of having sex with a female student after school in a vacant classroom during the spring semester.

Halle, who is married and lives in Plant City, had been texting the girl after their first sexual encounter and agreed to meet up at the girl’s house to have sex again, but the girl’s father intercepted her texts and when Halle arrived at the girl’s home to pick her up the girl’s father confronted him. The father contacted authorities after Halle left.

A spokesman for the sheriff’s office said that, even if a child consent to having sex with an adult, that it doesn’t provide immunity for an adult to face criminal prosecution.

Halle is being charged with first-degree felony sexual battery and second-degree felony charges for traveling to meet a minor after using a computer and prohibited use of a computer service or device.

Halle was hired by the Hillsborough school district in 2006. He started at Freedom High School, where he taught English and journalism. He began teaching at King High in 2009.

Halle has no previous criminal record in Florida, and the people who know him are surprised that he could do something like this. Halle still attends church at Plant City First Baptist Church, where he once taught guitar and drums and played in the church band, though he has not in recent months.