DALTON, Ga. (AP) - A northwest Georgia high school teacher has resigned after being arrested in a child sex sting.
The Daily Citizen-News of Dalton reports that 36-year-old Michael David Powers was arrested Tuesday by the Floyd County Police Department.
Powers is charged with aggravated child molestation; four counts of electronically furnishing obscene material to minors; use of a computer service to seduce, solicit, lure or entice a child to commit an illegal act; obscene internet contact with a child and sexual exploitation of children.
A judge denied bail for Powers and he remained jailed Friday in Rome.
A police report obtained by the newspaper says an investigator posing as a minor girl was looking for people who were trying to use social media to contact children for sex. It says Powers traveled from his home in Tunnel Hill to Floyd County, believing he would meet a girl younger than 16 for sex.
The investigator said he got sexual messages from Powers, who sent explicit photos four times. Police said Powers described desired sex acts and tried to get nude pictures by threatening to expose the conversations.
Powers was placed on leave by Whitfield County Schools on Wednesday and resigned later that day, according to school district spokesperson Kristina Horsley.
He had been a science teacher at Coahulla Creek High School near Dalton since 2011, Horsley said, and was at one time a coach in the school system.