Former Escambia District Employee Charged With Having Sexual Relationship With Tate High Student

A former Escambia County School District employee has been arrested on charges related to an alleged ongoing sexual relationship with a Tate High School student.

Susan Elizabeth Weddle, age 40 of Cantonment, is charged with felony sexual battery on a victim 16 or 17 years old, lewd and lascivious behavior with a victim 12-16 year old, and using a two-way communication device to facilitate a felony.

On November 22, a male Tate student alleged he was having sex with “forty year old” Susan Weddle, according to an arrest report. The student told a school counselor about the relationship, and said his mother was aware of the allegation and had taken his cell phone away from him because she discovered text messages between him and Weddle.

A witness reported seeing the victim and Weddle kissing at her house, the report states.

When interviewed by authorities, the student confessed to having sex with Weddle “several hundred times” over about a year and half beginning when he was 15-years old at locations that included her house, his house, the beach and her vehicle. The student stated he believed he was in love with Weddle, and they pair routinely shared nude photographs by phone. He stated those phones have been destroyed or factory reset. He said the relationship started in October 2018 when he was at her house because he was friends with her son. The Tate student said he became intoxicated and persuaded her to have sex with him, according to an arrest report.

A witness said he saw Weddle and the student kissing in the kitchen during a party at her house, and he said the student admitted to having sex with Weddle after the party. He also told investigators that he saw a video he believed showed the student having sex with Weddle, but no faces could be seen in the video.

The student told investigators that during their relationship, Weddle provided him with an iPhone, necklace and bracelet, but they were gifts, not payment for anything.

Weddle’s statements to investigators are redacted from an Escambia County Sheriff’s Office report.