High school teacher charged with sexual relationship with student

ALLENTOWN, Pa. (WTXF) - A high school teacher in the Lehigh Valley is charged with having inappropriate sexual contact with a student.

The Lehigh County district attorney says the case started on Nov. 4, 2015, when Lehigh County Children and Youth contacted a Pennsylvania State Police trooper regarding a Childline notification about the alleged relationship.

Heather Montero worked at Emmaus High School in the East Penn School District.

Authorities say the trooper investigated the Allentown woman "on social media to determine the student in question and was able to identify the student," who was born in 1997.

The next day, he interviewed the alleged victim at her home with her parents present. He asked for her cell phone.

A few days later, she gave it to the trooper, along with her Twitter user name and password. That same day, Montero removed all reference to the alleged victim from her social media accounts.

The trooper gave the phone and Twitter information to the Digital Forensics Laboratory of Lehigh County for analysis.

They found a series of Twitter messages between Montero and the alleged victim from June 3 to Oct. 6, 2015. According to authorities, "The messages provided evidence of an intimate sexual relationship."

There was also information from the alleged victim's cell phone, plus letters and notes sent between the two, allegedly similar in tone and content to the Twitter messages.

Montero, 36, surrendered Tuesday morning.

She's charged with one count each of unlawful contact with minors and corruption of minors, both felonies of the third degree.

Montero has been suspended with pay from East Penn School District.

FOX 29 learned through the school's website Montero was a social studies teacher. Her name has been replaced with TBD, but the email link still goes to her email address.