A now-former Charlotte-Mecklenburg Public Schools teacher has been arrested on charges he had sex with a student and sent inappropriate text messages.

TYVAUN MAURICE JAMES

Tyvaun Maurice James, age 25, was arrested on Oct. 5, 2022, and was charged with taking indecent liberties with a student and indecent liberties with a child.

The alleged victim was a female student at the school where he taught and was apparently 16 years old at the time the alleged incidents occurred.

James was released from jail on a $50,000 bond per jail records and his next court appearance will be sometime in August. He was indicted on the charges against him this past May.

According to reports, James is accused of having sex with a student on school property. He is also accused of sending text messages to female students that included inappropriate topics and pictures of his genitals.

News of the case only started circulating in the past week, highlighting a lack of transparency by CMS with parents and the public.

At the time of his arrest, he was working as a band teacher at Harding University High School.  James had only been working with the district for a few months, having been hired on July 5, 2022.

Charlotte-Mecklenburg Public Schools (CMS) indicated he was fired on Nov. 1, 2022, after first being suspended with pay on Sept. 2 and suspended without pay on Oct.31 following his Oct. 5 arrest.

CMS finally fired him on Dec. 13. The CMS school board apparently decided the charges had merit since they terminated his employment.

There is no teaching license on file with the state for James.

James has a prior record, which CMS would have had to ignore if a background check was run on him as is the common practice for all hires and workers in NC school districts.

On Oct. 31, 2020, James was arrested on one count of felony possession of stolen goods and one count of felony larceny by an employee. Jail records show that he was issued a $2,500 secured bond and a $2,500 unsecured bond in that case.

As with the current arrest and charges, the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department was the arresting agency in 2020.

The outcome of James’ 2020 arrest is unknown at this time.