BONNEVILLE COUNTY, Idaho – from www.kidk.com – 28-year old Kari Atkinson, a P.E. teacher at Sandcreek Middle School was arrested yesterday at the school for an alleged sexual encounter with a 14-year old male student.

The Sheriff’s Office received the information from an anonymous tip.

“Detectives went out and interviewed the victim as well as the suspect based on that, they filed arrest charges for lewd and lascivious conduct with a child under 16,” explains Sgt. Doug Metcalf of the Bonneville County Sheriff’s Office.

The Bonneville County Prosecuting Attorney has filed 5 counts of lewd conduct against the teacher.

Atkinson was featured on Eyewitness News back in November as our “Outstanding Teacher of the Week”.

She has no known priors and made her first appearance in court today to have charges read to her.

The preliminary hearing is set for next Wednesday at 1:30.

District 93 Superintendent, Dr. Charles Shackett, addressed the issue earlier today.

“This is a personnel issue so we can’t make a comment other than to share our policy which says whenever this happens, the teacher is put on administrative leave with pay while the investigation is underway and once the investigation is done, a determination is made, then some changes might occur at that point,” says Shackett.

At this time, the Sheriff’s Office believes this was an isolated incident and no other students were involved. However, they would not specify if the alleged encounter was an ongoing affair or something that happened once between the teacher and student.

“They’ll finish up their reports, collecting any evidence that they need to and get ready for a court case with the prosecuting attorney,” says Metcalf.