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The 23-year-old man, identified as Kevin Van Talley Jr., is charged with statutory rape after allegedly having a sexual encounter with a minor.
"To have a conversation, but you end up with your pants down. Is that the new definition of having a conversation?” said Dianechia Fields, a former charter school administrator.
Just after 1 p.m. Monday at Kirby High School, Shelby County deputies said a 16-year-old girl was checked out by a 23-year-old man. According to an affidavit, Talley pretended to be her older brother and used a fake name.
"This is a red flag for school safety. If the district wants to build trust within the community, you are failing. It’s a big fail," Fields said.
Fields is a former front desk school administrator for a charter school. She said this should have never happened.
Deputies said Talley Jr. drove the teen to an unknown location near her home, where she performed a sexual act on him. Moments later, records show he drove to the Walgreens at Winchester and Riverdale roads, refused to pay the $60 he promised her and tried to leave her there.
The teen jumped back into the car before he drove off, then he dropped her back at the high school.
"You can't get around the fact that you came to a high school to solicit an underage child for a sex act that you did," Fields said.
The affidavit states deputies were flagged down by the victim during school dismissal. They said the suspect told police they were meeting to only have a conversation and was not aware of the victim’s age.
"Somewhere she sees that this is OK. So makes you wonder if she's conditioned to believe to use your body to get money. As a community, we all have work to do," Fields said.
As for how they met, the affidavit said the dating app Plenty of Fish. FOX13 checked the site's guidelines that state users must be 18 or older; underage accounts are removed and banned.
"How is this underage child able to create a profile on an app? What are these social apps doing to prevent underage children getting on these apps to get trapped in these kinds of situations?" Fields said.
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