School Counselor Charged with Raping Teen Student She Was 'In a Relationship' With at Middle School

a 14-year-old in Pennsylvania revealed to his parents he was having a sexual relationship with the middle school guidance counselor now she faces multiple charges and is on administrative leave trial attorney and former prosecutor Florina alyer joins us to talk about the case welcome to sidebar presented by law on crime I'm Jesse Weber I was going to say I can't believe what I'm about to talk to you about but given the stories we have been covering I guess I'm really not that surprised another female School employee is accused of sex related crimes yeah this time a Pennsylvania woman contacted police in pensburgh over the summer saying that her 14-year-old son was involved in a romantic and sexual relationship with Kelly and Sh sh is a 35-year-old guidance counselor at penridge South Middle School or I should say she was right now Sho is charged with three counts of institutional sexual assault three counts of indecent assault assault of a person less than 16 years old and one count of Corruption of a minor according to the police the teen called his parents the night of July 17th asking to be picked up from sho's home and when the parents got there he was reportedly hiding behind a parked car because he said that one of sh's family members had seen Sho kissing the boy demanded that he get out the boy told police that he and shoot had sexual contact multiple times all happened after they sat together on a bus during a class trip and what started as her regularly calling him to her office even causing him to miss class this turned physical police found both handwritten notes and electronic messages between shoot and the boy even on the school district's messaging app called canvas apparently also communicated on Snapchat authorities also say that there's security footage showing Sho and the Teen inside of a grocery store where she bought a bottle of wine she also allegedly left one of her earrings at the boy's home char charges were filed against sh she has been reigned and she posted a $25,000 Bond I want to bring in right now trial attorney and former prosecutor Florina altchiler to talk more about this Florina my goodness I mean just another case this one though we're going to get into it I I want to start with the charges because they're distinct they they seem like they overlap but they're distinct in their own way all relatively serious all carry their own kind of very fear of punishments in terms of how many years in prison we're talking about but if you can generally describe to us or summarize what do all these charges mean sure thanks for having me Jesse so the first count institutional sexual assault is a felony in the third degree in the state of Pennsylvania that means that the possible sentencing range is up to a maximum of no more than seven years then you also have the charge of indecent assault of a person less than 16 years that charge is a misdemeanor in the second degree in the state of Pennsylvania and that has a maximum sentence range of up to two years in prison with a fine of $5,000 and then you have the charge of Corruption of miners Corruption of miners applies in two different ways it sometimes applies to truancy but here in this case it's related to a sexual act and because as charged it's related to a sexual act in the state of Pennsylvania you're also looking at a sentencing range of up to seven years okay so we want to thank Morgan and Morgan for sponsoring this video I think it's pretty clear from the stories that we cover that it's not always safe out there when you're hurt it can be pretty confusing it can be scary you don't know where to turn well Morgan and Morgan is actually the largest injury law firm in America in a time when you already have so much to think about they make it super easy for you they've completely modernized the process because you submit your claim you sign contracts you upload documents and you talk to your whole legal Team all on your phone that's it an attorney is going to review your case in just eight clicks also they have 4,000 support staff that can help you through the process too which is just amazing to think about and in terms of price you only pay them if you win there's no upfront fee so if you're injured you want to join the over 3 million people that call every year you can submit a claim at www. forthepeople.com law on crime or by dialing pound law that's pound 529 on your phone just to be clear any of these accounts could they you take one count of sexual abuse that could fit that could qualify as a crime under those three different statutes or is it all separate kinds of incidents you know that's what I was trying to get a sense of because I think indecent sexual assault is and I don't want to get too graphic here but it's very specific in terms of what happened and then institutional the institutional sexual assault concerns the fact I assume that she was a guidance counselor at this school so am I understanding it correctly that prosecutors would have to show let's say X Y and Z happened one event happened but it can qualifies as a crime under these different statutes there's different elements to qualify for the different crimes the institutional component of course requires the element that the defendant is an Institutional actor here she's a teacher so that's what qualifies for sentencing purposes they could be consecutive or they could be concurrent running concurrent means running at the same time if it's for the same act so if it's the same one sexual act it would run concurrent so they wouldn't double up and add in time they would all run at the same time if convicted if we're talking about different acts so sexual activity maybe in different locations or at different points in time then you're talking about separate counts for separate acts which could run consecutive and add up wow that's that's that's something to think about I mean and this is happening in multiple counties right so according to CBS News one act sexual act occurred inside of her car near her home in Montgomery County on the same day that the boy later called his parents and then another time uh I think this is when the boy's parents and this sister were out of town she allegedly engaged in some sort of sexual act with the boy at his home in Bucks County a talk to me about the fact that this is happening in different jurisdictions and B in your experience is it common that you see this kind of abuse happening rather blatantly in these kind of public I mean not even public but in these kinds of areas where you know it's not just at a school room or a classroom but it's at the people's homes it's in their cars it happens in these different areas is that what you typically see so different locations in different counties obviously give your dition to different District Attorney's offices to prosecute this so she's being prosecuted in Bucks County Pennsylvania right now for the acts that occur there the institutional portion would apply elsewhere because she's still an Institutional actor as a teacher other jurisdictions would have jurisdiction over her based on the geographic location of where those acts happen as to where they're happening in the variety of places is there a good place to have sex with a child come on just no no it's not that it's what I was trying to say was and I had this conversation with Chris Hansen on a previous sidebar is what is amazing to me is how ongoing it occurs right it occurs over it can occur over years it can occur over it occur over it can occur over months it can occur over weeks and it happens in various dislocations and you're dealing with a minor who you know are under the custody of their parents it's sometimes hard it seems like a manipulation to get them away from their family to do this and again she's innocent until proven guilty what is just some of the most shocking aspects of it are sometimes where they occur and how the perpetrator is able to get the minor alone that's the part that always shocks me we're talking about a 15-year-old child here so you know this is in a seven-year-old that's difficult to get away from parents teenagers who are at that age will you know go to school have after school activities go out after school not too shocking that she's able to get this child away from his parents and have that be covered up for a period of time um obviously there's a period of grooming that goes on where the child becomes more comfortable with her what isn't shocking but is disturbing what isn't surprising I should say is this is someone in a position of power this is a teacher who has control over this child um and that unfortunately typically happens because they're in a unique position to groom students to make these students be comfortable and to be able to cover up for contact that they have with them under the excuse of it somehow being schol related so they have extra access to children that other sexual deviants don't it's a great point and that's you know one of the reasons allegedly calling him out of class to visit her at the office was just another element of it I think this case feels different because of how much other evidence there is the notes the the digital messages the surveillance footage leaving behind what was it I said you know the earring leaving behind the earring I mean that that feels different than we have in maybe other cases where the strongest piece of evidence and you could argue the strongest piece of evidence would be the teen's own account but sometimes that's all that you have but to have all of this other evidence feels a little different no yeah I think this is a case that's going to result in a plea deal I don't see her fighting this through trial I think there is overwhelming evidence that there was sexual contact between the two and really that's all that needs to be established there is no question of consent because again we're talking about a child and a child is not capable of consent so the only question is whether or not there was sexual activity and here I think when you look at all this evidence cumulatively they the prosecution is going to be able to prove it Beyond A Reasonable Doubt so she should really seriously consider taking a plea someone without a criminal record though will get a very light Le deal in a case like this so you mean no you mean no prison time yeah you know Jesse we were talking earlier about these seven-year maximum sentences and that sounds scary and significant but the reality is those seven-year maximum sentences are really for repeat offenders she's not going to get a sentence like that I've seen many cases with female teachers having sex with male child students and they get probation they get time served they get less than a year in prison um is that okay I think that's a question for society to answer but it's within the sentencing range you mentioned that when you have a female instructor or teacher or official with a male student if it's reversed and you see a male teacher with a female minor is that you see the same thing these kinds of probation deals or is it different I think it's a lot harder and in my exper experience in criminal defense it is a lot harder for me to get a favorable sentence for a male offender in a sex crime than it is for a female offender and certainly the sentencing guidelines have no gender distinctions but I think in the eyes of society unfortunately there is a gender distinction there's not much sympathy for male victims as there is for female victims and socially there is this false presumption that I do not agree with that a male child victim somehow wanted it and that this is some sort of Pride badge and that a female child of course could not have consented and there is no difference on gender in my opinion strictly Age based you're 100% right I mean if she did this this is abuse he is a victim and I've talked about this before on the program where you know sometimes the trauma of that may not be apparent immed immediately but it can have effects on that child for years to come for the rest of their lives and not even if it's just the idea of like you said there is no consent here that's not a defense they are a victim and yes I agree the way that it's framed can be different I I'm in I'm I think I'm surp I'm surprised to say the least that this could be a possibility of just probation uh if she pleads guilty so let me I want to ask you about the school district real quick because the charges were filed now but the school district said it was made aware of these allegations back in the summer they put shoot on administrative leave penridge superintendent Angelo berio said in a release statement quote we must acknowledge the significance of maintaining the privacy of the student and their family involved in this matter while we refrain from making premature judgments about the actions of the staff member facing prosecution it is crucial to reiterate the district's stance against any inappropriate contact between a penridge school district employee and a student such Behavior will will not be tolerated is that concerning for you do you think that the school district could face liability um by the fact that uh you know they were made aware of this uh months before but you know maybe a criminal investigation takes more time I I can't see anything that would indicate that they didn't take immediate action but this teacher excuse me this guidance counselor was employed there could the school district face any kind of liability absolutely they will face liability I think there is a potential civil lawsuit for negligence negligent supervision negligent control uh potentially even negligent hiring of this teacher we don't know what is or isn't in her background and how thoroughly they investigated her and hiring her but even assuming that that was fine there's clearly negligence supervision because this is inappropriate sexual contact with a student that is under her control and the school district has a duty to supervise its employees including its teachers to ensure that this type of sexual contact does not happen especially during school hours which is what puts the liability on them more significantly if this was in evening hours outside of school they would still have an issue about potentially her grooming him during her contact with him during school hours which would pave the way for liability but for sexual contact to happen also during school hours that is highly problematic for the school district and will likely result in some sort of money settlement now as for sh I mentioned she's out on bond she is currently restricted from entering the school district premises or having any contact with any of the students or the staff and of course the alleged victim can go nowhere near him have no contact with him um Florina Al shiler thank you so much for coming on really breaking this down for us and giving us some more insight into these cases because un unfortunately we keep covering them because they keep happening so Florina thanks so much really appreciate it thanks for having me all right everybody that's all we have for you right now here on sidebar thank you so much for joining us please subscribe on Apple podcast Spotify YouTube wherever you get your podcasts I'm Jesse Weber speak to you next [Music] time

Channel: Law&Crime Network

Views: 271,822

Keywords: law and crime, law and crime network

Id: x1UWJgwr20E

Length: 16min 29sec (989 seconds)

Published: Mon Nov 13 2023