CANTON -- Canton police they've arrested a former teacher for sexual assault involving a student.
According to the arrest warrant, this all stemmed from a complaint from the victim's parents saying their 17-year-old daughter was involved in a sexual relationship with her teacher, Lindsey Barth.
After police received a complaint on June 25th, they served an arrest warrant for Barth.
The warrant stated the 17-year-old girl confessed to the relationship when "father and mother observed a 'hickey' on victim's neck."
Parents like Heidi Hurlock said this was disturbing to know it happened right in her town.
"You know, you send your child to school, you want them protected. You don’t want to have to worry about all these kind of things going on nowadays," said Hurlock of Canton.
Also stated in the warrant, the relationship began when "Mr. B had initially contacted her via text message on her birthday 'Happy Birthday'."
It goes on to say the two "went for a walk, while walking and talking, Barth sat down on the path and pulled her (victim) onto his lap, facing him."
One of Barth's former students, Gabrielle Buteau said she was always skeptical about the two in class.
"They would always talk during class or something like that. That kind of made us more suspicious," said Buteau, a student.
Buteau said she is now shocked to know her former para-educator is accused of doing something like that.
"We kind of saw him more as a friend so when we found this out, we were like that is insane like no way he was arrested. That’s like disgusting he did anything with a student," added Buteau.
Barth started with Canton Public Schools in the fall of 2012. He was a special education, paraprofessional teacher, and taught one social studies class.
FOX 61 reached out to Barth's attorney who offered this comment over the phone:
“My client denies all the allegations. I need to collect additional information on what is specifically alleged and details of allegations, so we can properly defend these claims that are false. My client intends to contest this to the end.”
The superintendent of Canton Public Schools sent a letter out to parents and staff Wednesday informing them of Barth's arrest.
Barth was put on administrative leave on July 3rd and school officials received a letter of resignation from Barth on August 3rd.
According to the case, the incident(s) that involved the student did not happen on campus of the school.
"I want to let everyone know is that this appears to be an isolated incident. I am very disappointed and very angry if these allegations are true because this behavior goes against every one of the values of our Canton public," said Superintendent Kevin Case.
Barth was released on a $100,000 bond and is expected to appear in Hartford Superior Court on August 21.
