Police are investigating the report that a college student observing an elementary school class in New Britain sent inappropriate text messages to at least one student.
According to parents who said their children were victimized, the person in question used the Kik messenger app to contact at least three 10-year-old boys after school hours. She allegedly told one boy she loved him and talked about alcohol with another.
"One of the text messages was, 'Please erase all messages... or I will get in trouble. Don't tell your parents because what I'm doing is wrong. Baby, I love you,'" said Martha Ruiz, the mother of a 10-year-old boy, who said she found the messages on her son's iPod.
Ruiz and another parent, Anestos Moffat, said the adult contacted their children late at night, when they were supposed to be sleeping.
"She was talking about getting drunk. She was swearing on the app," said Moffat.
A spokesperson for the school district said the allegations came to light a couple weeks ago. The person at the center of the investigation, a student at Central Connecticut State University, was escorted from Vance Village Elementary School on May 13.
The student was part of a program that allows CCSU education students to observe classes in New Britain. District spokesman Paul Salina said all college students undergo background checks and talk with the school principal about acceptable conduct. They are also constantly supervised.
Salina said the student is prohibited from returning to any New Britain schools and "willingly surrendered" his or her cellphone after being escorted from the property. The student is not facing any criminal charges and is cooperating with investigators.
Despite parents' claims, New Britain Mayor Erin Stewart and police Chief James Wardwell said there's no indication the messages were sexual in nature.
"There is no allegation at this time of lewdness or 'sexual abuse,'" Wardwell said in an email to NBC Connecticut on Tuesday.
According to Stewart, the student told police conversations centered around ways to help a child who was being bullied.
