A Nashville high school football coach has been fired following his arrest for allegedly soliciting an underage student.
According to an affidavit from Metro Nashville Police, 25-year-old Leon Weldon Garlington messaged a 17-year-old girl on Instagram asking her for sex.
His Instagram profile states he is a football coach and associate dean of students at RePublic High School, a charter school near Brick Church Pike in north Nashville.
Garlington was arrested late Thursday night after he allegedly confessed to police about having sent the messages.
The conversation reportedly started with private Instagram messages to her over the weekend, asking the girl when she would turn 18-years-old. He also asked if she wanted to do anything with him "like sex lol." He later offered to reimburse her gas money to drive to his apartment.
The affidavit claimed, the next day, he texted her saying, "My bad about all this... Let's just act like none of this was ever talked about."
Garlington was booked into jail on $100,000 bond and was charged with solicitation of a minor. Because of her age and the fact that no physical contact was ever made, the charge is a misdemeanor.
RePublic High School later released the following statement, saying Garlington had been fired:
"Immediately upon being informed that a faculty member sent inappropriate electronic messages to an underage student, we took strong and swift action.
We addressed the incident with the student and their family. We reported the incident to Child Protective Services and the Metro Nashville Police Department. We confronted the faculty member and immediately terminated him for cause. We will continue to cooperate fully with local law enforcement on any further investigation.
This alleged behavior is totally unacceptable and will not be tolerated. Nothing is more important than the safety and security of our students and faculty members. We will not tolerate anyone being subjected to sexual misconduct, abuse, or harassment. We will always act urgently on any concern."
Garlington is a native of our area. According to the NewsChannel 5 archives, he played football for Brentwood Academy, and later went on to play at Tennessee State University from 2011-2014.
