Zachary Meadors, Georgia Teacher Accused Of Inappropriate Relationship With Male Student, Dead

A DeKalb County school district teacher accused of having an inappropriate relationship with a male student in Georgia was found dead from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound Wednesday.

Gwinnett County police said in a news release that Zachary Meadors’s body was found in a vehicle in the 1200 block of Scenic Highway around 5:18 p.m. EDT Wednesday.

According to an arrest warrant by DeKalb County police, Meadors was accused of having an inappropriate relationship with a sixth-grade male student at Freedom Middle School, where he had worked for two years. He was wanted on charges of child molestation, computer pornography and child exploitation.

He was last seen on Saturday and was reported missing by his father on Monday after he left letters and an iPad at his parents’ front door, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported. In the letters, Meadors apologized to an unknown person and his family for his relationship with the student.

“In this letter, Zachary was apologizing for all the chaos he caused. The second letter was written out to his family. (In) this letter, Zachary expressed how much he loved his family and he apologized for the image they may have of him now,” a detective wrote in the report, ABC-affiliated television station WSB TV reported.

In the third letter, he asked his parents to divide his money among family members.

He was under investigation and scheduled to report to the DeKalb County school district headquarters Monday but never showed up. His father told police that authorities had seized his son’s phone. The school said he was on leave without pay.

“We are angered and disappointed to learn of the allegations facing one of our staff members at Freedom MS. The safety of our students is a top priority, and we are determined to protect them, under any circumstances, from harm. The community should know that the district will take whatever steps necessary to meet that standard. DCSD Public Safety officers are investigating the allegations in this case. Meanwhile, parents and staff can take comfort in knowing the employee has been removed from campus and directed not to have contact with our students. We are determined to find the truth and to correct any misconduct that is found to have occurred,” DeKalb County school district Superintendent and CEO Dr. R. Stephen Green said in a statement.

He was last seen wearing a tan t-shirt with a girl on the front printed in black and white, cream pants with a black stripe and black high-top shoes, traveling in his white, 2018 Honda Accord with the Georgia license tag of RLL5682.