BOCA RATON, FL (Boca Post) (Copyright © 2025) — A teacher at Donna Klein Jewish Academy has been arrested after Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office detectives say he carried on an illegal sexual relationship with a teenage student, including encounters on campus and at his Boca Raton–area apartment, according to a newly filed probable cause affidavit.
Deputies arrested 26-year-old Elias Gordon Farley on Dec. 3, 2025, on two felony counts: unlawful sexual activity with a minor and offense against students by authority figures. The case stems from a weeks-long investigation by the agency’s Special Victims Unit.
According to the affidavit, the student told detectives the relationship began with after-class conversations at the end of the previous school year, when Farley was a teacher in the school’s science department. She said those talks were about psychology and personality topics and stayed within a teacher–student setting at first.
Over the summer of 2025, investigators say the two started communicating through a shared Google document linked to their email accounts. The document was allegedly used like a back-and-forth journal, with both writing and responding to entries instead of texting, the student told detectives.
The student said things changed after the new school year started in late August. She reported that she had Farley as a teacher most days under the school’s rotating schedule and often stayed late on Fridays to work on college essays and other writing projects. Those late stays turned into private time in his office and a nearby classroom, she told investigators.
Roughly six weeks into the year, around mid-September, the student said physical contact began. She described “grappling” in Farley’s office that involved wrestling-type behavior and said his hand went under her pants but over her underwear, touching her genital area, according to the affidavit. She told detectives similar contact happened multiple times over the following weeks.
By late September or early October 2025, the student said the behavior escalated. She alleged grinding while both were clothed, and told investigators she performed oral sex on Farley on at least two occasions in his office and in a classroom.
She also reported at least one incident of vaginal intercourse on school grounds, describing a brief encounter on the floor of a classroom in which Farley penetrated her, the affidavit states.
Detectives say the student later figured out where Farley lived based on details he shared about his apartment, its distance from the school, and his car. She told investigators she went to his apartment on a Sunday in early November and again the following weekend. During those visits, she said they had intercourse multiple times in his bedroom and that he used condoms and lubricant. She also reported that a vibrator was used during encounters at the apartment.
The student’s mother told detectives she first learned of the alleged relationship on Nov. 17, 2025, after a call from the school principal. She said her daughter then disclosed details, including instances of intercourse, and that she saw bite marks on the teen’s stomach and thigh. Those marks were photographed by deputies, according to the report.
An art teacher at the school also provided a statement. She told deputies the student had been volunteering in her ceramics class and, during a conversation after class on Nov. 14, said “I’m [expletive] a teacher here,” then identified Farley from the staff directory and showed her bruises and bite marks she claimed came from him, the affidavit states.
School security staff turned over surveillance video from Nov. 7, 2025. Investigators say the footage shows Farley and the student entering an office together and staying about an hour, then entering a classroom later that afternoon and again remaining inside for roughly an hour.
Because some of the alleged acts occurred off campus, detectives sought a search warrant for Farley’s apartment. When they executed the warrant on Dec. 1, they reported that the furniture and bedroom layout matched the student’s description. Crime scene technicians collected bed sheets and condom wrappers from the residence.
Investigators also obtained a warrant for Google records tied to the shared documents. The agency says the data it received confirmed conversations between the teen’s email and two accounts linked to Farley and included discussions about bite marks and plans to meet when his roommate would be out of the apartment.
When detectives first met with Farley at his apartment on Nov. 26, they read him his Miranda rights. According to the affidavit, he said he wanted to contact family and an attorney and declined to give a statement.
The arrest report notes that the victim is 16 or 17 years old and that Farley, as a teacher, is considered an “authority figure” under Florida law. Investigators wrote that there was probable cause to charge him with unlawful sexual activity with a minor and with an offense against a student by an authority figure based on a romantic relationship.
Farley was booked into the Palm Beach County Jail on Dec. 3. Jail and court records for his current custody status and any future hearing dates were not included in the affidavit.
All of the allegations described in the arrest affidavit have not been proven in court. Farley is presumed innocent unless and until he is found guilty in a court of law.
