River Valley High School teacher on leave after allegations of relations with 16-year-old student

THREE OAKS, Mich. -- A Berrien County teacher and assistant coach is on administrative leave as of March 7.

The School District confirms that this is because of an allegation involving him and a student.

Richard Jasso, a science teacher at River Valley High School, is on administrative leave due to allegations of having an inappropriate relationship with a 16-year-old student.

"Today at 1 p.m., one of our detective sergeants met with the superintendent of the River Valley Schools to begin an investigation on a teacher involving a 16-year-old child," said Melinda Logan, Michigan State Police Assistant Post Commander.

Chikaming Township Police Chief Todd Taylor asked MSP to be involved in the investigation because some of the alleged interactions may have occurred outside of his jurisdiction.

We reached out to River Valley School District and received the following statement from Superintendent Will Kearney:

I placed Rick Jasso on paid administrative leave on March 7 pending the outcome of an investigation regarding an inappropriate and unprofessional relationship between a teacher and a student. At this time, I do not have any evidence that there was a sexual relationship between the teacher and the student. The District is cooperating with the police regarding this incident.

The investigation is ongoing.

"We're in the stages of it, we're still working on officially interviewing the 16-year-old to receive as many details as possible and to obtain any evidence we can to support the case," said Logan.

We asked the River Valley School Board why parents haven't been notified about the allegations but have not received a response at this time.