TEMECULA -- Police officers arrested a teacher this week who has been charged with having sex with a female student at Temecula Valley High School, authorities said Friday.

Temecula police officials identified the suspect as 36-year-old Temecula Valley High teacher Jeremy Todd Buchholz, who was arrested Thursday at his French Valley home. He was booked at Southwest Detention Center on three counts of engaging in unlawful sexual acts with a minor.

Buchholz was released from jail Thursday after meeting bail set at $25,000, jail records show.

Temecula police investigators began looking into the allegation Sept. 18 and, based on the investigation, they allege Buchholz had been involved with the student for at least six months, Lt. Leonard Hollingsworth said in a news release. The girl is now 17, according to a court document filed in support of the arrest warrant.

Detective Darin Gray states in the document that the girl told him she had sex with Buchholz on multiple occasions in his classroom before school and in his vehicle after school as well as a couple of times at his home during the summer break from school.

Gray also states that two friends of the teen told him they were aware of the relationship from what she had told them and through text messages. Gray said he obtained a search warrant to look at Verizon Wireless records and found text messages between the suspect and the teen that referred to sexual acts.

The Riverside County district attorney's office filed charges against Buchholz last week, setting the stage for his arrest.

Buchholz had been on paid administrative leave from his teaching job since the investigation was launched, and that status was changed to unpaid when the charges were filed, said spokeswoman Melanie Norton of the Temecula Valley Unified School District.

Buchholz had been a math teacher at the high school since 2000, she said.

Temecula police officials ask that anyone with information relating to the alleged crime call Gray at (951) 696-3000.