A former teacher who lives in Gardendale has been arrested on charges of having sexual contact with underage students.

After a four-month investigation, detectives with the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office obtained arrest warrants for Robert Leland Grant, 26, charging him with two counts of a school employee having sexual contact with a student under 19.

In February, the Sheriff’s Office was contacted by administrators at John Carroll High School to report information had surfaced that a male teacher had been involved in an inappropriate relationship with two 16-year-old female students.

Over the course of the investigation it was learned that the teacher would meet the girls at separate locations away from school and engage in inappropriate sexual contact that include touching of a sexual nature and kissing. 

The contact with the teen girls began in May 2013 and continued periodically until December 2013.

A third teen girl brought the information to school administrators after the teacher made advances toward her.

Administrators confronted the teacher and told him that they would be launching an internal investigation. He subsequently resigned.

Grant was arrested on Monday morning, booked into the Jefferson County Jail and released after posting an $11,000 bond.