ORLANDO, Fla. – A Florida middle school teacher who was blackmailed by students after he allegedly asked them for nude selfies online is now on “relief of duty,” a district spokesman said.

An Avalon Middle School student told the Orange County Sheriff’s Office that she and a friend were chatting with her teacher on Snapchat and Instagram last month when the teacher sent a message “asking her to send nude photos,” according to an incident report cited by WFLA.

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WKMG reports:

She said the girls then decided to “blackmail” the teacher, telling him that if he didn’t pay them $2,000, they would show police his messages, the incident report said.

The girl claims that the teacher met her at a Family Dollar in Bithlo and gave her $2,000, deputies said.

Principal Karen Furno told deputies the teacher later approached her and claimed his Instagram account was hacked and asked for advice, and Furno suggested he report the incident to police, though it’s unclear whether the teacher followed through.

“Deputies also stated in the report that both students involved are enrolled, but ‘have been absent for most of the year,’ and that one student was ‘reported missing on November 4, after running away from Orange County Youth Shelter,’” WESH reports.

Deputies notified the Department of Children and Families, but have not filed criminal charges in the case, according to the news site.

The case was referred to the Sheriff’s Department’s sex crimes unit.

“An Orange County Public Schools spokeswoman said the teacher has been placed on relief of duty, but could not provide any other details,” WKMG reports.

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Several folks who commented about the situation online seemed skeptical about the girls’ claims.

“Blackmailing him isn’t exactly giving me a good vibe about these girls,” Scurvy Dawg posted in the WKMG comments.

“I have to agree, in this case they did not arrest him at this point so I have to think that maybe the police see the same thing we do, this was a setup and I would not be surprised if the accounts were hacked by these two girls …,” Bill James added.

“I’d want to see irrefutable proof that these messages ever took place before I’d pursue any charges against the teacher,” 1776usa2014 wrote in the WFLA comments. “These sound like trouble kids to begin with.”