South View High teacher facing student sex charges arrested
A suspended South View High School teacher who faces charges that he had sex with a student was arrested Monday, authorities said.
Dmitri Pelaez, 30, was charged with six counts of indecent liberties with a student and one count of sexual activity with a student. He was being held in the Cumberland County jail under a $40,000 bond.
A student reported to investigators last month that Pelaez had engaged in inappropriate conduct with her, authorities said. Three other students have since reported similar incidents.
Sean Swain, spokesman for the Cumberland County Sheriff's Office, said the seven charges are related to the first student. More charges are possible after the other students are interviewed, he said.
Pelaez, who taught social studies and served as the assistant girls soccer coach at South View High, has been on paid administrative leave since the allegations surfaced.
The father of the first student said Pelaez began making inappropriate comments to the 16-year-old girl, who played on the soccer team, in October. The conduct later included sexual advances and sexting, he said.
Pelaez is the second South View High teacher accused of having sex with a student in the past two years.
Matthew Aaron Holmes, a former assistant track and cross country coach, was charged in March 2017. A former track team member told investigators that she and Holmes had sex several times off campus between November 2015 and February 2016.
