TEACHER ARRESTED

The Okaloosa County Sheriff’s Office says a 48-year-old teacher at Meigs Middle School has been arrested on charges of soliciting and engaging in lewd behavior with a 13-year-old female student. Joseph Sparks, was booked into the Okaloosa County Jail and is being held on no bond. Sparks was said to have been sending and receiving hundreds of inappropriate text communications, including a message in which he requested to have her send him a photo of herself in her underwear. Sparks, who teaches Spanish and World History and is the boys’ soccer coach, has been suspended and is not permitted on any school campus while the charges are being investigated.