Former Fargo/St Cloud Band Teacher Pleads Guilty to Corrupting a Minor

A former Apollo High School Director of Bands and current Director of Bands at Fargo South High School, in Fargo, North Dakota was arrested last November in Fargo and charged in Cass County with "corrupting a minor" and "possession of certain prohibited materials"

Sebastian Michael Tackling was facing 2 class C felonies according to valleynewslive.com. Tackling has pleaded guilty in January to the charge of corrupting a minor. The second charge of possessing materials prohibited refers to Tackling possessing video, photographic materials portraying sexual conduct by a minor.

According to a court filing, police first became aware of the situation when a Fargo Police officer found Tackling and the girl on an air mattress in the back of a van last summer. For some reason, no charges were filed at that time. Charges were only filed after someone reported the relationship to police November 26th.

The sexual relationship began in October of last year, according to the girl, when she was 17. She told police that she and Tackling had sex by some basketball courts near an elementary school and exchanged photos and videos at school.

Tackling after denying the charges, later admitted to the relationship and exchanging photos and videos with the student at school. He admitted kissing the student while at school and that she "fondled him" in his school office.

Fargo South High School was made aware of Tackling's arrest on Sunday and placed him on administrative leave until the results of an investigation into the matter are released.

According to Tackling's Facebook page, he has been employed as Director of Bands at Fargo South High since 2010 and was the Director of Bands at Apollo High School 2002-2005.

The Fargo School District released this statement;

“Fargo Public Schools takes all allegations of impropriety committed by staff very seriously. The District will fully cooperate with law enforcement as they conduct their investigation. The safety and security of our students are of paramount importance to Fargo Public Schools; we will not tolerate any employee who engages in any inappropriate behavior.”