A math teacher in northeast Arkansas accused of having an inappropriate relationship with a teenage student was arrested this week, officials say.
David Yates, 44, of Jonesboro was arrested Wednesday on misdemeanor charges of second-degree endangering the welfare of a minor and first-degree failure to notify by a mandated reporter.
Records show Yates worked as a teacher at Westside High School in the Westside Consolidated School District, which is in Jonesboro.
Police noted that Yates was suspended with pay pending the outcome of a district investigation. His name did not appear among teachers listed on the school’s website as of Friday.
In May, the father of a 14-year-old girl told an officer with the Jonesboro Police Department that he had observed through messages that his daughter had been in “some sort of romantic relationship” with her teacher.
The two, he said, spoke in a way that was “very romantic in nature” but “did not appear to have been sexually oriented.”
During a search of Yates’ iPhone, authorities discovered a screenshots of conversations between the girl and someone with the username “pslpercussion.”
In the conversations, which dated as far back as January, the two “talked romantically and often spoke of being in love with each other and of leaving to go to Florida together when [the victim] graduates high school,” the report states.
A Google search of that username resulted in the discovery of YouTube videos posted by David Yates under the name “PSL Percussion.”
Yates' name did not appear in an online inmate roster for the Craighead County jail as of Friday morning.
