A former award-winning elementary school teacher has been arrested for the second time in as many years for child sex crimes.
Tyler Shows, who was once given an “Oscar of Teaching” by the Milken Institute, previously taught fifth-grade math at Petal Upper Elementary School before being charged in May 2024 with two counts of touching a child for lustful purposes and dissemination of sexually oriented material to a minor.
After bonding out at $125,000 and being free for over a year, the 35-year-old was arrested again on Tuesday and charged with three counts of child exploitation.
Officials with the Petal Police Department told multiple news outlets that new evidence was brought forward against Shows, who is accused of using alcohol and vapes to groom over a dozen students before resigning from his position as a teacher in March 2024. He was also found to be in possession of sexually explicit videos involving children and is accused of showing one of the students a photograph of his penis.
Shows is being held at the Forrest County Jail. If convicted of all six charges, he could spend decades – if not the rest of his life – in prison.
