A former middle school teacher in Arizona accused of having sex with a 13-year-old student enticed him into sexual assaults after texting him during days she wasn’t in school, newly released police reports show.
The documents, obtained by KPNX, show that 27-year-old Brittany Zamora — a former sixth-grade teacher at Las Brisas Academy Elementary School in Goodyear — connected with the teen she allegedly victimized in a classroom chat called “Class Craft,” in which Zamora asked students to text her after announcing that she wasn’t going to be in the class.
The purported victim told detectives that the messaging soon led to flirting between the pair, adding that he wasn’t sure exactly how the situation turned “really intense,” according to the station. Zamora, who is married, soon peppered the boy with messages like “OMG, I love you,” prompting him to respond in kind, transcripts of the exchanges show.
“Omg lol you’re so cute baby,” Zamora wrote in another message. “I wish you could’ve stayed after with me.”
“Me too,” the teen replied. “I wish I could just hang out with you whenever we wanted.”
The teen told police that he and Zamora had at least four sexual encounters between February and March, according to court records, including oral sex in Zamora’s classroom after a talent show, and another romp in her car. Zamora and the teen also traded naked photos, he told investigators.
Zamora would also call the teen in the middle of the night and met him on two occasions to perform sex acts on him in her car, he said.
The boy’s parents told police they noticed their son had been acting odd, leading them to install a parental control app on his cellphone that later alerted them to inappropriate messages between the pair, KPNX reports.
The teen’s parents then confronted him about the messages before he admitted having sex with Zamora, according to the police reports.
Three female students also spoke out about the “issues” they noticed between the teen and Zamora, writing in a letter to the school’s principal about their concerns on Feb. 7 before the alleged sexual assaults took place.
Principal Tim Dickey has since acknowledged to detectives that he only spoke to one of the students and told police he realized that was a mistake. The boy’s parents said the first sexual encounter between their son and Zamora took place on Feb. 16, or nine days after the three teens wrote school officials about the alleged relationship, according to KPNX.
In one recorded phone call between Zamora and the teen’s parents, the teacher apologized and said she would resign her position at the school. She was also unable to give the teen’s parents a firm answer as to why the alleged sex assaults took place.
“I ask myself the same question,” Zamora replied, police reports show. “I just got really close after I think everything went down and we’re like, ‘How could that happen?’ … We just got close.”
Zamora, who was arrested in March shortly after that recorded phone call, was en route to Las Brisas Academy Elementary School when she was picked up by police. She remains in custody at a Maricopa County jail after pleading not guilty to multiple charges, including felony sexual conduct with a minor and molesting a child.
Zamora also pleaded with the teen’s parents during that recorded call, telling them she didn’t want to see her life ruined by the allegations, KPNX reports.
“I don’t want to say stuff and have me recorded right not and bring this to court and have me go to jail for the rest of my life,” Zamora said.