PLANTATION, Fla. — Even a day later, the arrest was still being talked about across South Plantation High School.
Word spread quickly on Thursday afternoon, just after classes ended, that a music teacher had been arrested.
“For this to happen at my school, I just feel bad,” a student said Friday. “Like, it’s sad.”
Plantation police said Christopher Santanelli, 42, had an inappropriate relationship with a student.
“It’s very creepy,” a student named Jayce said. “It rubs my skin the wrong way.”
Investigators say the 18-year-old student reported the allegations more than two weeks before the arrest.
According to an arrest report, the victim told investigators that once she turned 18, “Santanelli began to ‘flirt’ with her and she would reciprocate it back.”
According to police, in the days leading up to Christmas, Santanelli gave the student gifts and communicated with her by text. Those gifts, according to the report, included a unique Disney pin and even a rose.
The student also told detectives that the teacher hugged and kissed her twice. Police said during the second, “she told him that she did not want that and he had replied, ‘Sorry, I thought that’s what you wanted’.”
Santanelli is also accused of sending the the teen a handwritten letter that began with, “As I watch you sleep,” a reference to watching her nap in class, and the words “I love you.”
Detectives say the encounters were never sexual, but the arrest report states that “Santanelli would comfort her by rubbing her back.”
Parents were notified of his arrest through a recorded message from the school’s principal.
“He was kind of weird,” Jayce said. “I had his class. He’s very awkward.”
In it, the principal says the teacher has been removed from the campus while the case is under review.
On Friday morning, Santanelli made his first appearance in Broward bond court. The judge set his bond at $7,500.
“I have a daughter who goes to this school and you gotta be aware of everything now and all the activities that (go) on over there,” parent Michael Heera said.
Santanelli bonded out Friday night, and had few words after being asked about the allegations.
“Have a nice night, thanks,” he said.
Santanelli has worked at the school for several years. School information listed him as the chorus director and a music instructor.
“I’m creeped out because he is a teacher and a grown man,” a student said.
A judge ordered that Santanelli have no contact with the alleged victim or any children except his own.
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