Former Pace Academy teacher arrested on sexual battery charges

Marshall Lopez, 33, has been fired by Pace, the private school in Buckhead said in a statement.

Lopez spanked a teenage student on her buttocks with his bare hands on three occasions in his classroom during the prior school year, according to an arrest warrant.

Lopez told the student he felt like she was underperforming in his class, the warrant says. In one instance, the warrant says he pulled down her pants and struck her above her underwear.

The student initially did not discuss what she said happened because she was scared, and she began skipping his classes, according to an Atlanta police arrest report. School officials eventually learned about the allegations and investigated, according to that report.

In the second case, an arrest report says Lopez wanted to discipline another teenage girl he said cheated on an exam. Lopez gave the student three options to address the situation: tell her mother, have the honor council decide the punishment or let Lopez decide the punishment, according to a warrant. The student let Lopez decide the disciplinary action. Lopez locked his classroom room and slapped the student’s buttocks with his hand four times, the warrant says.

Lopez stopped the spanking when another student knocked on the door, the report says. The student said Lopez on other occasions would give her hugs and touch her buttocks.

The student told a friend, another student told an adult, and administrators were contacted, according to the police arrest report.