Two Fletcher High students were unaware of the other’s secret — that each had a sexual relationship with the same teacher — until a friend they each confided in brought the girls together.
They then wasted little time telling the teacher’s wife.
According to a just released Duval school district investigative report, the two students, who have since graduated, told the wife of the teacher, Corey French, of the affairs and showed her photos and screenshots of messages with him to prove it.
The wife, Alexandra French, who also teaches in Duval, told district officials, touching off a criminal and district investigation last March.
French, who resigned in May, faces two felony charges and a court date for next month.
In a twist, when police tried to arrest him in late September, Alexandra French tried to stop them, police said, and both were charged with resisting arrest without violence. Both pleaded not guilty Oct. 24.
Their attorney, Melinda Patterson, said her clients are innocent of resisting arrest and Corey French denies having sexual relationships with the girls.
“He is maintaining his innocence across the board,” Patterson said, adding Corey French already agreed to turn himself in prior to the arrest, which contributed to the confusion.
Duval school officials released their investigative file on Corey French on Tuesday. In great detail, it outlines how the four-year science teacher allegedly convinced each girl to have a relationship with him.
One girl was 17 when she met French in April 2017. She didn’t have him as a teacher, but his class was a hang-out for students, the report said; French had a “good reputation with the students.”
Here’s how the report says the relationship developed:
A week after she began communicating with him via Twitter, French suggested they create personal Twitter accounts because that Twitter account “was checked,” the report said. French’s personal twitter account name was “dry_humor.”
Within a week or two, French allegedly confessed he had feelings for her beyond those of a teacher for a student. She didn’t know what to think, the report said; girls in his class fawned over him and he “acts like a friend in class instead of like a teacher.”
They met up on a hiking trail on the University of North Florida campus where they kissed. A few days later she was in an empty classroom at a bookshelf when French allegedly came up behind her, started kissing her neck and they had sex, the report state.
They later discussed it on Twitter and sent nude pictures to each other. They also had other encounters at school, at her stepmother’s house and at his house, the report said.
From the start, French told the girl he was separated from his wife and getting a divorce, the report said. He told her he loved her and wanted to run off to Colorado or Alaska, the report said.
Even after she graduated, they had sex while she was helping him set up class during the week before the 2017-18 school year, the report said. The student said she broke it off when she met a boy in October.
The other student also met French her sophomore year in 2014, when he took over her science class, the report said. She had just turned 16 and was in a club French sponsored called Healthy Senators, which met after school.
At the time, French used KIK, a mobile instant messaging app, to communicate with students, even putting work assignments on it, the report said. When the girl messaged French about making up a missed test, French told her to come to his class after school.
She said she was having trouble with some test questions. French gave her the answers and flirted with her.
Late one night he messaged her, telling her he loved her. They later met in his classroom during a planning period or after school and he again told her about his feelings and that he had a wife.
He put her hand on his crotch, the report said. They talked a few more minutes and when she got up to leave, he stopped her at the door, told her he loved her and kissed on the lips.
From then on, she said, he would kiss her or touch her sexually in his classroom.
During orientation before her junior year, he took her to his home, showed her his dogs, and, after small talk, took her hand and asked if she was ready. He led her to a spare bedroom where they had sex.
On later occasions they had sex in his car, including during a Homecoming game when he was there to chaperone. Once she took a photo of herself in a negligee in French’s bathroom.
They stopped communicating in October 2016. Both girls said their relationships with French ended by the time they turned 18 years old.
At different times both girls confided in a third former Fletcher student who had moved out of state. That student told investigators both her friends fell in love with French; one even put off college hoping he would leave his wife.
The two girls decided to tell French’s wife, they said, because they feared he would victimize another student. They also said they were upset that he wasn’t leaving his wife.
Alexandra French, who teaches at Venetia Elementary, told district investigators Corey French warned her last summer about false rumors around school that he was in a relationship with a student. She even messaged one of the two girls, who avoided answering her questions.
The two girls met Alexandra French at a Dunkin’ Donuts last March and showed her pictures of Corey French in boxer shorts in his bedroom and on a blanket at the beach and the photo of one girl in a negligee in French’s bathroom. They also showed her screen shots of messages with Corey French.
Alexandra French went home and asked her husband to leave and she called Fletcher High’s principal.
District officials said Corey French was immediately removed from classroom duties. When it looked like he was about to be fired, French resigned in May, they said. The district notified the state for possible action against French’s teaching certificate.