A teacher at Pinellas Park High School resigns after one girl's mother contacts authorities.
By THOMAS C. TOBIN, Times Staff Writer
Published November 17, 2005
Authorities are investigating a former English teacher at Pinellas Park High School, who, according to an affidavit, encouraged two female students to send him photos of themselves posing partially nude.
The girls told investigators they e-mailed the photos to Jason Matthew Hooper, 30, of Clearwater, who began teaching for the Pinellas school system in January 2000.
Hooper resigned Friday, six days after the Florida Department of Law Enforcement conducted a search at his apartment on NE Coachman Road. A department spokesman said Wednesday that an investigation is under way and Hooper has not been charged.
Hooper could not be reached at his home for comment.
The mother of one of the girls contacted authorities Nov. 3 after finding "highly inappropriate" messages on her daughter's personal e-mail account sent from two e-mail accounts believed to be Hooper's, according to an affidavit investigators filed as part of their request for a search warrant.
One message from a Hooper e-mail account said: "THANK YOU VERY MUCH. Your (sic) still wearing too much!" The girl responded in part: "(I'll) have to take (some) nude ones . . . oops did I say nude I meant new hahhaahahah."
The girl later told investigators she used her cell phone camera to photograph herself in various states of undress, then sent the images to Hooper. She was one of Hooper's students this semester.
Another Pinellas Park High student who had Hooper for a teacher in a previous year told a similar story, the affidavit said. She told investigators she took photos of herself using the web camera on her personal computer, initially sending Hooper clothed photos. When Hooper urged her to send more revealing photos, the girl complied, according to the affidavit.
She said she deleted the photos from her computer, fearing her mother would find them.
Investigators confiscated several items from Hooper's apartment, including a computer, a digital camera, an Apple iPod, a number of disks and underwear.
