Ex-Teacher’s Sex Crime Charge Dismissed Following Marriage to Former Student She Allegedly Slept With

A former Missouri teacher beat sex crime charges after marrying the student she admittedly had sex with.

The Joplin Globe reports Baylee A. Turner, 26, was charged in February 2019 with sexual contact with a student by a school district employee, volunteer, or elected or appointed school official, a felony charge punishable by up to four years in prison.

Turner admitted to having sex with a 17-year-old male student while she was in her first year teaching at English at Sarcoxie High School. She resigned shortly after the arrest. 

“In an emergency school board meeting on Monday, they accepted the resignation of Turner and the school has asked the state to revoke her teaching license,” Sarcoxie School District Superintendent Kevin Goddard said at the time.

Prosecutors are now dropping the charges in light of Turner’s marriage to her former student.

Nate Dally, an assistant prosecutor in the case, told the Globe that “the marriage severely impacted the state’s ability to prosecute the ex-educator due to the broad spousal privilege law in effect there,” adding that “because marital or spousal privilege now applies, her former student can no longer be compelled to testify against her, making the state’s case exceedingly difficult to prove in court.”

It’s unclear when Turner and her former student tied the knot. His identity has not been released.