An investigation is ongoing into an accusation of sexual misconduct involving a Maumelle High School band director and a female student, according to police.
The Maumelle Police Department said it received a fax Wednesday from the Arkansas State Police Crimes Against Children Division about a report of inappropriate touching that involved the employee and a minor.
Deb Roush, spokesman for the Pulaski County Special School District, confirmed that an employee has been suspended with pay pending the outcome of an investigation.
During an interview Thursday with police, the minor said that beginning in her 10th-grade year she gave hugs to the band director at the end of class that later grew to include him grabbing and squeezing her buttocks, according to a report.
The conduct continued through her senior year and included the employee lifting her shirt, exposing her breast and inappropriately touching her in that area during a school-related summer activity in July 2015, the student told police.
The minor said she had a crush on the band director and that she considered the activities "their little thing" and had hidden the encounters until confiding in a friend at the beginning of the year, the report said. The friend then told her mother, who reported the information to state police, Maumelle police said.
According to police, the employee on Thursday denied inappropriately touching the student and did not understand why he was being accused of sexual misconduct.
An affidavit has been filed, though no warrant had been issued for the employee's arrest as of Tuesday afternoon, said Capt. Jim Hansard with the Maumelle Police Department.
State Desk on 05/18/2016