by BRAD ROLLINS

HARRIS

San Marcos police have arrested a high school teacher accused of having sex with his 18-year-old student on school grounds.

William Shawn Harris, a teacher and assistant coach at San Marcos High School, faces six felony counts of an improper relationship with a student relating to his relationship with the girl, a senior at the high school.

According to an affidavit used to obtain an arrest warrant in the case, a friend of the girl reported the sexual encounters to San Marcos police officer Brad Follis.

“We began our [internal] investigation immediately and notified” the police department and CPS, said Iris Campbell, the school district’s spokesperson.

The witness said the relationship began in the fall semester and continued into January. Harris had sex with the girl six times, the affidavit states, twice in Harris’ classroom, twice in coaches’ offices, once at his home and once in a parked car in a neighborhood.

The girl confirmed the story later to police and made a cell phone call to Harris in the presence of two police officers. In the call, Harris told the student that he was an idiot for allowing the relationship to happen and that he “broke down under the pressure of you.”

Harris is an assistant girls’ volleyball and basketball coach and a teacher in a course credit recovery program computer lab, Campbell said.

He has been employed with the school district for five years, previously at Miller Junior High. He was transferred to the high school this year.

Campbell said she did not know whether the alleged relationship involved a member of the volleyball or basketball team.

Improper relationship with a student is a second-degree felony punishable by two to 20 years in prison.

Harris remains in the Hays County jail on a $120,000 bond.