The Army JROTC instructor at Erie High School has been arrested on charges that he solicited a minor after police in Florida said he sent explicit images to someone he thought was a 14-year-old girl.
The girl was really a detective with the Stuart Police Department in Martin County, Florida, the department said. Stuart is about 50 miles north of Palm Beach on the Atlantic coast.
The instructor, Jason Dekaye, 50, is a resident of Meadville, the Stuart Police Department said. He was arrested in Meadville on Jan. 23 and is at the Crawford County Correctional Facility, awaiting extradition to Martin County, the Stuart Police Department said in a Facebook post the evening of Jan. 29.
The Erie School District is working on a statement on the case, a district spokeswoman said. The Erie School District’s online link to Dekaye’s “meet the teacher'” page had been disabled as of the morning of Jan. 30.
The JROTC instructor at Erie High School has been charged with solicitation of a minor in an online case investigated in Florida.
The Stuart Police Department said Dekaye is charged with solicitation of a minor, transmission of harmful material to a minor and use of a two-way communication device. His bond is $750,000.
Police say contact made on social media
Also according to the Facebook post:
“On January 6, 2026, the Stuart Police Department initiated an investigation regarding an adult male who contacted a Stuart Police Detective who was posing as a fourteen-year-old minor on a popular social media platform. During the ‘chat’ sessions, the suspect transmitted harmful material and explicit images to someone he thought was a fourteen-year-old female.
“Detectives identified the suspect as Jason Dekaye, 50, a resident of Meadville, Pennsylvania. Detectives also discovered that Dekaye was employed as a JROTC instructor at Erie High School in Erie, Pennsylvania.
“As a result of the evidence obtained during the investigation, detectives obtained an arrest warrant for the suspect signed by a Martin County Court Judge. Detectives coordinated with partners from the Department of Homeland Security, the FBI, the Pennsylvania State Police, the U.S. Marshals, the Martin County Sheriff’s Office Warrant Unit, and the Meadville Police Department to further the investigation, collect evidence and locate Dekaye.
“On Friday, January 23, 2026, Dekaye was located at his residence in Meadville, Pennsylvania, and arrested on the warrant without incident.”
“This investigation remains active, and additional charges are possible,” the department also said. It said it had no further information to release “at this time.”
Instructor hired at Erie School District in 2018
Dekaye has been the instructor of the Army Junior Reserve Officers’ Training Corps program at Erie High since August 2018, according to Erie School District records. His salary at the time he was hired was $67,096, according to the records.
The records list his rank as a first sergeant. He served in the Army in active duty in several capacities, according to the online networking site bold.pro.
This is a developing story. Return to GoErie.com for updates.
Contact Ed Palattella at epalattella@usatodayco.com or 814-870-1813.
This article originally appeared on Erie Times-News: Erie High JROTC teacher charged with sending explicit images to minor