A Pasco County school resource officer was fired for inappropriate social media contact with students, some of them sexual in nature.
Milton Arroyo was involved in multiple inappropriate conversations with several female students, according to the Pasco Sheriff's Office.
Arroyo spent more than 20 years in law enforcement, most of that with the New York State Police. He joined the Pasco Sheriff's Office in 2015 and acted as school resource officer at Fivay High School from November 2016 through April 2017.
He was previously disciplined for "giving a student the middle finger" in a video back in February.
When allegations of inappropriate Snapchat conversations came to light in April, the Sheriff's Office says he was put on administrative leave without pay.
"Texting young girls is absolutely not going to be tolerated in this sheriff's office," said Pasco County Sheriff Chris Nocco.
In these conversations, PCSO says Arroyo asked one student to unzip her sweatshirt and send him a picture, and asked another how old of a guy she would date.
"He was definitely grooming my daughter, there's no doubt about his behaviors," said one mother.
ABC Action News spoke to the mother who first alerted the sheriff's office about Fivay's school resource officer back in April. We are not identifying her to help protect her daughter's identity.
"She trusted him, she really thought he was a friend who she could trust and he broke that line," said the mother. "She's scared. It's terrible because you teach our children to trust the police and the teachers and things like this happen."
Sheriff Nocco says there were about 6 female students involved and that the majority of the conversations were from Arroyo's personal cell.
"To those teens out there I can't warn you enough," Sheriff Nocco said. "Don't fall into the trap. For those in high school, it's inappropriate for adults to be having these conversations with you. It's not friendship, they're grooming you."
Nocco says Arroyo committed no sex-related crimes and they are not charging him for soliciting. He is being charged with unlawful use of a work computer.
In an interview with detectives, Arroyo stated, "They were inappropriate and you know, I've said it, that I should have used a better filter on how I was talking to students." He went on to say that he only had "good intentions" when messaging the teenage students.
