Court documents show the teacher contacted the student on social media and sent photos and videos to the student

Nov. 6 – A Southwest Middle School teacher was charged Wednesday in Freeborn County District Court with soliciting a 15-year-old student to have sex during the 2023-2024 school year.

Gerardo Guerrero, 31, of Austin, was charged with one count of soliciting sexual conduct from a child and one count of distributing by electronic communications material relating or describing sexual conduct to a child, both felonies.

Court documents show Guerrero and the student met briefly at Albert Lea High School when she was handing out cupcakes to teachers one day. On that day, Guerrero had been working as a substitute teacher.

He is now a physical education teacher at Southwest, according to the Albert Lea School District website.

The student reportedly stated that when she gave Guerrero a cupcake, he asked her full name and told her to come over at the end of the day to get some candy, which she and her friend did before going home.

He reportedly later found her on Instagram and Snapchat and reached out.

Court documents show the teen was added by a Snapchat called “Jear Bear.” When she asked who he was, he replied that he was “Mr. Guerrero” and told her that he had received her cupcake. She reportedly looked up his account on Instagram, saw who he was and wrote him back on Snapchat, asking if he had contacted the right person and told him she was a student.

Guerrero reportedly responded, “It’s okay and no one will find out.”

Police reportedly received permission to search the student’s phone and found one video and ten photos allegedly sent to the girl by Guerrero, including some that were sexual in nature.

Police received a report on October 31 in which the teacher allegedly asked the girl to have sex. Screenshots of other messages were shown to police, including messages in which Guerrero allegedly talked about hanging out in secret and about the girl keeping her promise not to tell anyone what was going on.

Freeborn County Court Judge Ross Leuning set Guerrero’s unconditional bail at $50,000 and conditional bail at $25,000. Conditions include no contact with the alleged victim and no unsupervised contact with children other than his own. He must also sign an extradition waiver and wear a GPS monitoring device.

The district said in a statement Tuesday that Guerrero is on paid administrative leave. He was arrested Tuesday at the Brooskide Education Center.