SOUTHAVEN, MS -- A Southaven high school teacher is behind bars, accused of having sex with a student.
22 year-old Tyler Bigham now faces sexual battery charges.
Police say Bigham was caught having sex with a 17 year-old at the Snowden Grove baseball complex, just down the road from DeSoto Central High school.
That's where Bigham worked as assistant band director for the last four months. Cops tell us the girl he was having sex with was in his class.
Parents at the Snowden Grove complex Tuesday said frankly, they're disappointed.
“You expect teachers to take care of your children and not take advantage of them and it is really shocking and it’s sad really” says mother Angel Gunn.
It happened in public?” says mom Morgan Mize. “That’s weird.”
It was a patrol officer who discovered Bigham and the student last night, in a car parked in the parking lot at the complex. Police believe this was the only time the two got together.
At the home Bigham shares with his parents, no one wanted to comment Tuesday.
Neighbor Max Hubbard, who has known Bigham since he was a child, says there's never been any visible problems with the family.
“It's hard to believe and I'm really sorry” says Hubbard. “He's a nice kid. As far as I know, he's never been in any trouble. He just got out of college about a year and a half ago.”
Bigham is currently free on a $50,000.00 bond. He’s under suspension from his job at the school.
If convicted, Bigham would be placed on the Mississippi sex offender registry.
