Indiana band teacher charged with molestation

CROWN POINT, Ind. -- A school band teacher faces child molestation charges for allegedly having sex with one of his 14-year-old students repeatedly at the school over a 10-month period.

James Ciammetti, 41, of Oak Lawn, Ill., was charged Friday with five felonies -- two counts of child molesting, two counts of sexual misconduct with a minor and one count of child solicitation. He was being held Saturday at the Lake County Jail on a $160,000 bail.

Ciammetti had sex multiple times on school grounds with a girl who was in one of his eighth-grade classes at Clark Middle/High School in Hammond, according to Lake County Criminal Court records.

His alleged activities were discovered by the girl's father, who was using a computer program that tracks his children's activities on the family's computers.

Ciammetti and the girl had traded more than 1,100 e-mails, most of them sexual or obscene in nature, prosecutors said. He had been the girl's band teacher since sixth grade.

Ciammetti was suspended without pay because of the "seriousness of the situation," Hammond schools Superintendent Walter Watkins said Thursday.

Ciammetti has taught for 16 years and has a master's degree and a teaching license that will expire next July, according to state education records.