A 49-year-old music teacher has been charged with having a sexual relationship with a boy she first seduced when he was 11 years old, authorities said.
Carol Flannigan, a teacher at Rolling Green Elementary in Boynton Beach, was arrested Wednesday on six charges, including two counts of capital sexual battery on a child under 12. Authorities said the relationship lasted for 19 months.
Flannigan had developed a close relationship with the boy and his family after he took her music class, inviting him and two younger brothers to sleep over at her Boca Raton home.
The stepmother of the boy, now 13, asked Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office to investigate after finding sexually suggestive text messages on his cell phone Tuesday.
After interviewing the boy, investigators listened in on a phone call the boy made to Flannigan in which she told him to continue lying about their relationship, according to an arrest report.
The Department of Children & Families had investigated Flannigan in 2002, after her husband told a marriage counselor she had described feelings she had when she kissed a 12-year-old boy, according the report.
DCF and police concluded there was no indication of sexual abuse or inappropriate touching and closed that case after the boy said he had “tap kissed” Flannigan but had not felt uncomfortable, the report said.
Law enforcement officials were unable to confirm whether the boy in the DCF probe was the same as the one at the focus of Wednesday’s arrest.
