A Cobb County private school teacher has been arrested for alleged inappropriate conversations with a 14-year-old former student, according to police.
Matthew McKinley Anderson, 36, who lives in Marietta, was arrested Wednesday and charged with furnishing obscene materials and contributing to the delinquency of a minor, both misdemeanors, according to Cobb jail records. Anderson, a teacher at The Walker School in Marietta, was released Thursday afternoon on $15,000 bond.
The arrest is the latest in a string of metro Atlanta teachers accused of illicit relationships with students.
In the latest case, Anderson “often used profanity in his text messages and initiated conversations about sexual intercourse, oral sex, drug use and often used sexual innuendo,” his warrant states. “The accused clearly knew that the victim is a minor since he was her former teacher and her age is specifically mentioned in the text messages.”
The text messages were exchanged from late September until around Oct. 14, according to investigators. No information was released on where the 14-year-old attends school.
Anderson said multiple times he would spank the victim in flirtatious messages, according to investigators. He also allegedly told her that smoking marijuana and having sex helps him to fall asleep at night and implied that the same would help her, the arrest warrant states.
In an emailed statement, The Walker School said Anderson has been placed on leave.
“We were deeply concerned to learn of the allegations of misconduct involving a teacher and a former student,” the school said. “The safety and wellbeing of our students are of the utmost importance to all of us at The Walker School. We first learned of these allegations (Wednesday) and are cooperating fully with the Cobb County police. The teacher was placed on immediate leave, and we have begun an investigation.
“We are vigilant in obtaining and updating background checks for employment, and we provide training and an ongoing sense of community within our school to ensure that any type of inappropriate behavior is not tolerated. We are keeping the lines of communication open with our teachers, staff, parents and students.”
In September, former science teacher Robert Vandel, 63, of Canton, was arrested and accused of raping a child in early 2020. According to Roswell police, Vandel was employed by the Fulton Academy of Science and Technology Charter School and the child, who was under the age of 14, was a student in his class at the time of the alleged assault.
Vandel is facing multiple charges in that case, including rape, aggravated assault with intent to rape, and false imprisonment of a child under the age of 14. He was taken into custody Sept. 3 at Lyndon Academy in Holly Springs, where he was employed until his arrest.
The GBI has announced the agency is assisting Roswell police with “identifying additional sexual assault victims in an ongoing criminal investigation.”
According to records obtained by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution from the Georgia Professional Standards Commission, Vandel previously had his certification suspended for two years after students and teachers complained of his behavior. In a November 2006 hearing, two students testified that Vandel had touched them on their inner thighs, GPSC findings state.
In August, a physical education teacher and coach at an Alpharetta private school was arrested and charged with possessing child pornography and inappropriate contact with a child on the internet, police said.
Tarik Uduk, 25, who taught at Fulton Science Academy, was charged with 10 counts of possession of child sexually abusive material and one count of obscene internet contact with a child, Sandy Springs police spokesman Sgt. Sal Ortega previously said.
Earlier this year, a North Cobb Christian School band teacher was arrested after being accused of an inappropriate relationship with a former student.
In August, Craig Godfrey was indicted on eight charges, including three counts of sexual assault of a student, one count of aggravated child molestation, one count of sexual exploitation of children and three counts of obscene internet contact with a child, Cobb court records show.
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