Court documents allege teacher reached out to student on social media, sent photos, video to student

Nov. 6—A Southwest Middle School teacher was charged in Freeborn County District Court on Wednesday with soliciting a 15-year-old student for sex during the 2023-24 school year.

Gerardo Guerrero, 31, of Austin was charged with one count of soliciting a child to engage in sexual conduct and one count of distributing via electronic communication material that relates or describes sexual conduct to a child, both felonies.

Court documents state Guerrero and the student briefly met at Albert Lea High School as she handed out cupcakes to teachers one day. On that day, Guerrero had worked as a substitute teacher.

According to the Albert Lea school district website, he is now a physical education teacher at Southwest.

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

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

Court documents state the teenager was added by a Snapchat called "Jear Bear." When she asked who he was, he responded that he was "Mr. Guerrero" and told her he had received her cupcake. She reportedly looked up his account on Instagram and saw who he was and wrote him back on Snapchat, asking if he had reached out to the right person and told him she was a student.

Guerrero reportedly responded, "Its ok and no one will find out."

Law enforcement reportedly got permission to go through the student's phone and found one video and 10 photos that had allegedly been sent by Guerrero to the girl, including some that were sexual in nature.

Police received a report Oct. 31 of the the teacher reportedly soliciting the girl to engage in sex. Screenshots of other messages were shown to police, including messages in which Guerrero reportedly talked about hanging out secretly and about the girl keeping her promise of not telling anyone about what was happening.

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

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