Former Virginia City High School teacher arrested

William Beeson, a former English and theater arts teacher at Virginia City High School, has been arrested on sexual assault charges.

According to Sgt. Ken Quirk of the Storey County Sheriff's Office, Beeson was arrested at about 3:30 p.m. Tuesday at Piper's Opera House, where he serves as program director.

He was charged with one count of suspicion of felony sexual assault of a child under the age of 16, one general count of suspicion of felony sexual assault and one count of suspicion of misdemeanor unlawful conduct with a child.

Quirk said he was not sure if the counts involved the same incident or several incidents. He said several incidents were under investigation by the Storey County Sheriff's Office.

"Cases that we are investigating are several years old," he said.

Bail was set at $150,000.