OVERLAND PARK, Kan. -- Police were investigating on Thursday after a mother found what she thought were inappropriate text messages on her daughter's cell phone from a teacher at Shawnee Mission North High School.

The mother told the school principal on Tuesday about the messages allegedly from a 30-year-old teacher on her 17-year-old daughter's phone. The school immediately notified police.

The teacher, who was on paid leave on Thursday, could lose his job if he violated school policy.

"Employees that are found to do be doing something that would be inappropriate or would be in violation of that policy certainly would face serious consequences up to and including termination," said Leigh Anne Neal, a spokeswoman for the Shawnee Mission School District.

Even if the text messages are considered inappropriate, police said the district attorney will have to decide if the messages are illegal.

"It all depends on what we find in the text messages, what's being said exactly, the content of it," said Officer Jim Weaver, of the Overland Park Police Department.

The teacher and the student have been interviewed, police said. Investigators are looking at both of their cell phones.

Authorities have determined that communication between them began in November, and they have a lot of work to do before they finished their investigation.

Other Teachers' Electronic Communications With Students Questioned

In a case unrelated to the situation in Overland Park, prosecutors accused a teacher of furnishing pornography to a minor on Monday, according to police in Warrensburg, Mo.

A minor in Henry County led sheriff's investigators to the Chilhowee teacher, Brian Foree, who lives in Warrensburg, which is in Johnson County, authorities said.

Foree was accused of sending pictures of his genitalia electronically to a teenage female student at another school in Henry County.

"Mr. Foree was a good teacher. I had observed him. The kids cared for him. He cared for kids, and then this happens," said Chilhowee School District superintendent Stephen Pope.

Pope said Foree, a first-year music teacher, was on administrative leave and Pope expected Foree to resign.

"We met with the student body this afternoon, and they assured me that none of this had transpired between him and them," Pope said.

Warrensburg police, Henry County sheriff's investigators and Johnson County sheriff's investigators executed a search warrant on Saturday.

Items seized during the search will be analyzed by a crime lab, police said. The charge filed against him was a misdemeanor, but authorities said more charges could be filed in the case.

Pope said Foree said he'd hired lawyers to "fight this," as he was picking up his personal items from the school where he taught.

"It's all over the news now. You hear about it all the time, about porn being distributed to kids and all this," said parent Matt Corunse. "It's just real distracting and real disturbing and everything, but this happens, even in a small community."

News of Foree's arrest followed word of similar allegations against a teacher in Warrensburg, Mo.

An 18-year-old Warrensburg High School senior, who was not identified, accused a female teacher of stalking him. He claimed she sent him inappropriate text messages and a picture of her breasts.

Also on Friday, the superintendent of the Excelsior Springs School District said a teacher in the district was under investigation after being accused of having inappropriate communication with a student. He didn't release any additional details.

Across the state -- in St. Charles, Mo. -- prosecutors filed misdemeanor pornography charges against a suburban St. Louis woman for allegedly e-mailing topless photos of herself to a high school freshman, authorities said.

Melissa Moss, 27, was fired from her teaching job at Barat Academy in Dardenne Prairie last year, and she was charged last week, authorities said.