Alex Thomas
Police in Polk County, Florida, have arrested Robin Dunlap, a former teacher at Haines City High School, alleging they found evidence that she was sending nude photos of herself to a 15-year-old boy. In a bizarre twist, Dunlap never even met her purported victim; in fact, the teen lives hundreds of miles away, in Texas.
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The 27-year-old educator reportedly met the unnamed youngster online while playing Xbox. Initially, he told her that he was 19, but police say she soon learned his real age. Authorities said that as their conversations heated up, they moved over to Kik, a video and texting app, and at some point, the victim’s mother looked at his phone and figured out what was going on. She messaged Dunlap, explaining that her son was only 15, according to a press release from the Winter Haven Police Department.
27 yr-old Haines City HS teacher faces felony charges after continuing to send sexually explicit conversations to a 15 year-old Texas boy after she admitted to police she knew his real age. https://t.co/RqDsJhcDPR pic.twitter.com/jiLukbit86
— Winter Haven Police (@WHPoliceDept) December 19, 2017
On Sept. 18, Dunlap turned herself in, telling police that she sent nude photos to the victim but said she sent the messages “before she learned his real age,” the Tampa Bay Times reported. However, even after she found out, police said the former educator kept on with her salacious behavior. On Oct. 29, the victim’s father contacted Winter Haven police and told them that Dunlap was still messaging his son, saying they’d moved their conversations to Google Hangouts.
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Following that report, the Winter Haven cops said they teamed up with authorities in Texas to confirm that the pair had multiple conversations even after Dunlap realized how old the receiver was on the other end of her messages. On Dec. 17, police confronted Dunlap with information indicating that the pair were still speaking. At that point, police said that the teacher confessed, saying that “she continued to speak to the victim because he is the only person that she can talk to and the only one who understands her.”
With Dunlap’s permission, police searched her phone and discovered a chat that stretched from the end of November to the middle of December — the conversation reportedly “progressed to extremely vulgar with sexually explicit language.”
Police Chief Charlie Bird said in the press release, “There is absolutely no excuse for an adult — especially a high school teacher — to continue sexually explicit conversations with a 15 year-old long after his real age is revealed. The vulnerable age of this victim and the fact that this woman took advantage of him for her own personal needs is inexcusable.”
Dunlap was charged with transmitting harmful material to a minor and using a two-way communication device to commit a felony.
