Police charge Canon-McMillan high school teacher with having sex with student

A Washington County science teacher was arrested on Tuesday on charges he had a monthslong sexual relationship with one of his students at Canon-McMillan High School.

Justin White, 48, of Canonsburg is charged by North Strabane police with 13 counts of institutional sexual assault and criminal use of a communication facility.

He is being held in the Washington County jail on $150,000 bond.

White’s attorney, Adam Bishop, declined comment Tuesday. A preliminary hearing is scheduled for Aug. 12.

According to a criminal complaint, police were contacted on June 20 by the father of a recent Canon-Mac graduate. The man said he had discovered inappropriate messages and images on his daughter’s cellphones and turned them over to police.

The teen said that she took multiple classes from White during her junior and senior years, according to the complaint.

In October 2023, they exchanged personal emails and cell numbers, the complaint said. After that, they began to communicate regularly through text, emails and Google Docs.

The conversations ranged from personal and family issues to romantic feelings, police said.

By November 2023, the complaint said, White was visiting the student outside of school, and in May 2024, he admitted having romantic feelings for her.

They met regularly at a business in North Strabane, and the student visited White frequently in his classroom.

When the student turned 18, White gave her books as a birthday gift, and they continued to meet and engage in sexual activity, police said.

On Valentine’s Day, he gave the student a necklace, the complaint continued. She also bought a burner phone so that they could communicate in secret, police said.

From March to April, White and the victim met frequently in the backroom of White’s classroom and engaged in sexual activity, the complaint said.

School records showed that the student received 297 electronic hall passes to and from White’s classroom between January 2024 and May 2025.

She also met him at the high school twice on Sunday evenings in April, which police said was confirmed by school security cameras. They then entered the school and went to White’s classroom.

On May 13, White and the student met at a park-and-ride lot, and he took her food and flowers.

According to the criminal complaint, police recovered more than 8,000 text messages between them from the student’s two phones.

They also recovered 14,380 emails, including 60 on the district email server.

“The conversations discovered in the emails, text messages and Google Docs could be described as a daily sexual, romantic and inappropriate for a student-teacher relationship,” the complaint said.

On Tuesday, the school district sent parents a letter notifying them of the arrest.

It said the district is cooperating with police and that it was first notified of the investigation by the county’s Children and Youth Service Agency.

At that point, the letter said, it was not clear that the matter involved a student. As soon as the district learned the teacher’s name, he was immediately placed on administrative leave, the letter said.

In addition to being a science teacher, White is also listed as a golf coach for the district.