Former Teacher Facing Charges - Acadiana's Multi-Media News Station

Eunice Police say a former Eunice High School teacher was arrested for sending inappropriate text messages and photos to an 18-year-old student. 38-year-old Jacqueline Fruge was charged with prohibited sexual contact between an educator and a student.

Eunice High School may be quiet now, but there's a lot more going on behind closed doors. Jacqueline Fruge turned herself in on Thursday for sending inappropriate text and photo messages to a student, which police describe as sexually explicit in nature. The arrest comes a few weeks after rumors of the picture surfaced.

"She did come forward with information that she did send text messages to a student at Eunice High School," said Eunice Chief-of-Police, Ronald Dies. "It appears there was possibly two text messages relating to this situation."

Fruge resigned from her teaching position earlier in the semester and before the investigation even started. Police say at this point, it's unclear if the text messages had anything to do with her resignation.

"We're still in the process of obtaining facts, getting a good timeline of events, when it started and until the ending date," said Dies.

Dies would not specify who was the whistleblower, but says they are also investigating what seems to be sexual misconduct between Fruge and the school's principal. Police will send a request to the Attorney General's office to look into faculty knowledge of the text message exchange.

"School policy and state law states that it's mandatory they (faculty members) contact law enforcement within 72 hours and notify the school board office. The School Board was not notified and we were not notified," said Dies.

-Caroline Balchunas

The Eunice Police Department has completed an investigation into the case of a former Eunice High School teacher accused of sending sexual text messages and photos to a student. An arrest warrant was issued for the arrest of Jacqueline Fruge on the charge of "Prohibited Sexual Contact between an Educator and a Student." During the investigation it was discovered that there were cases of sexual misconduct taking place between members of the faculty on the school campus.(between suspect and principal) A request was made to the St Landry Parish District Attorney's Office to determine if a school faculty member is considered as a public servant. The District Attorney's Office then placed the decision back into the hands of the investigating officer, Lt Richard Daigle. The request will be made to the State Attorney's General's Office for further investigation due to the fact that members of the faculty had knowledge of the text messages and failed to  report the incident to local or State Law Enforcement. 

81.4.  Prohibited sexual conduct between educator and student

http://www.legis.state.la.us/lss/lss.asp?doc=451834

This investigation was initiated when the photos were presented to the investigating officer but was never reported by the principal. Not reporting this offense is a violation of Louisiana Revised Statute 14:81.4 section F. Section F states that such incidents are to be reported to local or state law enforcement immediately.