A former Glen Lake Community Schools teacher is facing criminal charges for allegedly violating the privacy of his students, authorities say.

The Leelanau County Sheriff’s Office announced on Tuesday afternoon that it had recently been contacted by Glen Lake Community Schools with a complaint “involving a teacher possibly taking inappropriate photos of students.”

After the initial contact, which took place on January 24, the sheriff’s office dispatched officers to the school to launch an investigation. The investigation “included the execution of several search warrants of electronic devices as well at residences in the local area as well as St. Clair County,” where the suspect previously lived.

Investigators ultimately “determined that Elijah Daniel George, 26, of Traverse City was the teacher in question.”  The sheriff’s office forwarded its investigative report to the Leelanau County Prosecutor’s Office for review, which then charged George with six different criminal offenses, including three counts of surveilling an unclothed person and three counts of using a computer to commit a crime.

Until recently, George was the middle school and high school band director at Glen Lake Community Schools. A downstate native, George graduated from Alma College in the spring of 2020 and took the job with Glen Lake the following fall. He has since been working to resurrect the district's band program, which had largely fallen dormant. George resigned his position after the investigation into his alleged crimes began.

In the wake of the charges, a warrant was issued for George’s arrest, and last Thursday, February 15, he was apprehended and arrested in Marysville, Michigan by officers from the Marysville Police Department. George was then “transported to the St. Clair County Jail and returned to Leelanau County the following day.” He has since been arraigned on all charges and released on a $5,000 personal recognizance bond.

Earlier this month, Superintendent Jason Misner notified parents via email about George’s resignation and the investigation into his behavior, promising that the district always strives “to ensure our school buildings are places where students feel safe, welcomed, and comfortable so that they can learn and thrive.” Misner’s initial email indicated that the investigation had to do with potential privacy violations involving students, but did not identify the specific nature of the violations.