A band teacher at Abraham Lincoln High School in Council Bluffs is accused of having improper relations with a 17 year old student. 56 year old Fredrick "Mark" Mendell was arrested today by Pottawattamie County Sheriff's deputies at his home. He was booked for two counts of Sexual Exploitation by a school employee.
Council Bluffs police started the investigation in late March. The student told detectives that she and Mendell went on an overnight college visit together and they slept in the same hotel room. She also said that the relationship had been sexual in nature and that some actions took place inside the high school while she was a student and Mendell her band teacher.
Investigators say that Mendell and the student exchanged messages that stated they were in love with each other.
The teenager met the requirements to graduate and is no longer attending classes at A.L. High School.
Sixteen is the age of legal consent in Iowa but state law also prohibits school employees from having sexual contact with students, regardless their age.