A former director of bands and music technology at the state’s No. 1 high school was arrested Tuesday on child molestation charges, a Gwinnett County Public Schools spokeswoman said Wednesday.
Michael Appelbaum, who spent nearly eight years at the Gwinnett County School of Mathematics, Science and Technology, is in the Gwinnett Adult Detention Center on multiple counts of aggravated child molestation and one count of sexual assault by a teacher, principal or administrator, according to online jail records.
His arrest came on the same day U.S. News & World Report named GSMST Georgia's best high school and the nation's 27th best high school.
According to a statement from the district, a former student reached out to police, alleging she and Appelbaum had an inappropriate sexual relationship while she was still a student at the school near Lawrenceville. Appelbaum, who lives in Roswell, denied the former student’s allegations, the district said in an April 18 letter to the Georgia Professional Standards Commission.
The commission has rules for educators who receive reports of sexual misconduct by a teacher, administrator or other school employee. They must immediately “make an oral report” of the suspected abuse to the principal or the principal’s designee and they have 24 hours to file a written report of the incident to the principal or designee.
Under Georgia law, sexual contact between any person with supervisory or disciplinary authority — such as a law enforcement officer, teacher or psychiatrist — and a person under their care is illegal, even if it is consensual.
“The former student alleged the first inappropriate contact occurred in November 2011 and continued through August 2012,” Gwinnett schools said in the letter. “The former student alleged that they [had] sexual intercourse a total of five times [three times at school and two times at the student’s home].”
School police and human resources began an investigation March 9.
“A forensic analysis of the teacher’s district issued computer did not reveal any additional information,” the district said in the April 18 letter to the commission.
Appelbaum, who was hired by the district in August 2008 and worked at GSMST his entire Gwinnett career, resigned March 18, district spokeswoman Sloan Roach said.
School police did not obtain a warrant for his arrest until Tuesday.
The latest allegation isn’t the first against Appelbaum. He was investigated in 2013 and issued “a letter of direction” after allegations of inappropriate contact with another student surfaced, Gwinnett schools said. That student is a former friend of the latest accuser, the district said.
Appelbaum’s first court appearance is scheduled for 1:30 p.m. Wednesday.
He is the second Gwinnett teacher arrested on sexual assault charges since March. Mill Creek High School language arts teacher Julee Sams Impara, 48, was arrested March 1 on charges she had a sexual relationship with a 17-year-old student last year. She resigned Dec. 9.
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