ZEBULON — Police department detectives have charged a former Wakelon Elementary School teacher with two counts of taking indecent liberties by a teacher and two counts of taking indecent liberties with a child.

Charges were brought against George Christ Johnson, 50, of 1794 Ravenwing Dr., Fuquay-Varina, based on a pair of incidents in which inappropriate contact allegedly occurred between the suspect and a 7-year-old girl on the school’s campus.

Michael Evans, spokesperson for the school system, said the father of the child brought the allegations to the school system’s attention, and the school system immediately contacted the Zebulon Police Department. Since then, the two entities have been cooperating in the criminal investigation.

The two incidents of improper contact occurred on May 8, and the matter has been under investigation since that time, according to a press release from the police department.

Johnson, a first-grade teacher, was suspended from his position with pay, pending the outcome of the investigation, but he resigned from his position June 12.

Johnson turned himself in to police at 2 p.m. yesterday, and was taken to the Wake County Jail where he was placed under $70,000 bail.

Johnson began working for the school system as a full-time employee in the 2007-2008 school year. Last year was his first at Wakelon Elementary.

“If we had seen anything in his reference checks during the employing process, he wouldn’t have been hired,” Evans said.

Evans said he doesn’t know for a fact that the child was a student in Johnson’s classroom.

“We got him out of the classroom and out of the school, pending the review,” Evans said.

Evans said it is “way too early to contemplate” the future of Johnson’s employment.