{"id":60692,"date":"2025-04-11T18:38:09","date_gmt":"2025-04-11T22:38:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/?p=60692"},"modified":"2025-04-11T18:51:31","modified_gmt":"2025-04-11T22:51:31","slug":"lehigh-senior-high-school-volunteer-coach-arrested-for-seducing-student","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/2025\/04\/lehigh-senior-high-school-volunteer-coach-arrested-for-seducing-student\/","title":{"rendered":"Lehigh Senior High School volunteer coach arrested for seducing student"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>A former&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/lsh.leeschools.net\/\">Lehigh Senior High School&nbsp;<\/a>volunteer coach in Lee County faces charges for seducing a student.<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"375\" src=\"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/83042408007-steven-bennett-mug-shot.avif\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-60694\" srcset=\"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/83042408007-steven-bennett-mug-shot.avif 300w, https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/83042408007-steven-bennett-mug-shot-240x300.avif 240w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n<p>Lee County Sheriff\u2019s Office\u00a0deputies arrested 41-year-old Steven Bennett on April 2, accusing him of soliciting, luring, and seducing a child through text messages.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Bennett was the assistant basketball coach at the high school, serving in a volunteer capacity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n<p>The investigation began in January after a concerned mother reported receiving sexually inappropriate messages from Bennett to her son.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Among the messages found on the alleged victim\u2019s phone were texts from Bennett discussing watching porn.<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-large is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"768\" src=\"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/sb-lehigh-1024x768.avif\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-60695\" style=\"width:555px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/sb-lehigh-1024x768.avif 1024w, https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/sb-lehigh-300x225.avif 300w, https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/sb-lehigh-768x576.avif 768w, https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/sb-lehigh-1536x1152.avif 1536w, https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/sb-lehigh-png.avif 2048w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n<p>The boy\u2019s mother also reported that Bennett sent her son several hundred dollars and gifted him items such as Beats headphones.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Deputies interviewed the teenager, who confirmed that no explicit photos were exchanged. The boy also mentioned that Bennett provided financial assistance when needed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Deputies and detectives conducted multiple interviews and reviewed digital evidence. According to the affidavit, messages recovered from the child&#8217;s phone included Bennett calling the student homophobic slurs and discussing pornography.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In one exchange, Bennett asked if the child filmed a sexual encounter with his girlfriend and texted, \u201cDad will pay for recordings, haha.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The school\u2019s principal terminated Bennett\u2019s volunteer position and banned him from the campus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Bennett is currently out on bond.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/steven.m.bennett\">https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/steven.m.bennett<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A former&nbsp;Lehigh Senior High School&nbsp;volunteer coach in Lee County faces charges for seducing a student. Lee County Sheriff\u2019s Office\u00a0deputies arrested 41-year-old Steven Bennett on April 2, accusing him of soliciting,&hellip; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":60694,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[57,32],"tags":[3024],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60692"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=60692"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60692\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":60697,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60692\/revisions\/60697"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/60694"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=60692"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=60692"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=60692"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}