CABARRUS COUNTY, N.C. — Cabarrus County sheriff’s investigators arrested and charged a high school social studies teacher for child sex offences.
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The Cabarrus County Sheriff’s Office got a tip on Thursday morning from the Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force.
Detectives then identified the suspect, John Amerigo Calabrese, 39, and a plain clothed-officer arrested him on campus in the staff parking lot.
“I watched him get put in handcuffs and put in the back of a sheriff’s truck,” said student Cooper Greene, who sees Calabrese every day.
Investigators charged Calabrese with one count of statutory sex offense of a child, and one count of indecent liberties with a minor, the sherrif stated Friday in a news release. The victim was as young as 10 years old.
Calabrese, who is a teacher at Northwest Cabarrus High School, won “Cabarrus County Schools’ Beginning Teacher of the Year for 2023.”
Students said the social studies teacher told dad jokes and made them laugh.
“To know him, is just to laugh and you wouldn’t see this coming,” said student Hayley Winecoff.
He is in jail under a $1.75 million bond and was scheduled for his first court appearance on Friday.
“That’s the news going around school,” said student Justin Gonder.
He was still on the district’s directory on Friday as a secondary social studies teacher.
Channel 9 is asking school district officials about Calabrese’s employment status.
No additional details have been made available.
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