St. Louis- She’s being called the topless teacher.

A 27 year old Chesterfield woman who taught at a newly opened, private St. Charles County high school is facing a criminal charge for allegedly e-mailing topless pictures of herself to one of her students!

The former teacher, Melissa Moss, was fired from her job as an English teacher at the Barat Academy in Dardenne Prairie after the investigation began in November.

Court documents say in mid-November, Moss e-mailed two pictures of herself nude from the waist up to a 15 year old boy in her class.

School officials say the parents of the teen found the pictures while patrolling his internet activity and went to police as well as the school.

A profile has come up on Facebook.com supporting Moss- people posting messages including we want her back at Barat Academy.

We talked with the Robert and Kelly Pfeiffer- their son was in Moss’ class.

They say they thought she was a great teacher and they’re stunned by the charges.

“It is very disturbing and you know it’s kind of a sign of the times the way we live with a lot of internet access and Face book and things like that. As a parent you have to be on constant vigil to make sure, you have to know what your kids are getting into,” said Robert Pfeiffer.

His wife, Kelly, added, “I was kind of shocked because I worked with her a lot as far as one on one talking to her you know about his grades and keeping up with them and I thought she was a really nice teacher. So when this came about, it really shocked me.”

Barat Academy is a private, independent catholic high school that opened last September.

The school’s president, Debby Watson, said of the situation, “it’s frustrating, it’s upsetting, it’s disappointing. It’s all of those emotions. But what I’m most proud of is that parents did the job they needed to do. And they work in partnership with the school.”

The school sent letters home to parents alerting them to what was happening back in November when the investigation was just beginning.

Officials at Barat say Moss did not use school systems to send the pictures.

The charge against her is a class A misdemeanor- she could face up to a year in jail and a one thousand dollar fine.