A young female teacher allegedly sent nudes to a 16-year-old student and invited the boy over for sex while her husband was out of town.
Rikki Lynn Laughlin, 24, exchanged nudes with a student at St. James High School in Missouri – where Laughlin worked as a special education teacher, according to Maries County Sheriff Department.
The married mother-of-one faces six felony charges for allegedly pursuing the 16-year-old, sending him pornographic images and soliciting photos from him.
Laughlin married her husband, Grant Laughlin, 23, in June 2022 and the Missouri couple share a one-year-old daughter.
The teacher posted frequently on her social media accounts – where she shared snaps of her spending time with her daughter and husband, in her classroom and posing in front of Trump 2020 flags.
The interactions between Laughlin and the student took place mostly over Snapchat – where she allegedly sent him an explicit video of her performing a sex act.
The alleged victim claimed that they had also kissed and said that ‘things progressed fast’ after she had reached out to him on Snapchat.
According to the student, Laughlin invited him over to her family home while her husband was out of town to have sex.
The student reportedly made excuses to not meet Laughlin for the sexual exchange at her house because ‘he did not feel comfortable,’ according to the detective’s report.
After people began ‘talking’ at the school – Laughlin became worried and asked the student to delete all of the pictures they exchanged, telling him she could go to jail if the images and videos were discovered.
After the school district that employed Laughlin reported the relationship – a detective visited the student at their house and they were able to find some of the nude photographs and explicit content that had been exchanged.
Maries County Sheriff’s Office made a probable cause statement alleging that Laughlin did not deny receiving the photos – but insisted that the student had initiated their ‘inappropriate relationship’.
Laughlin claimed: ‘I was not aware he was a minor until yesterday.’
After Laughlin gave the detective written consent to search through her phone – the detective found a video like the one that the 16-year-old had described.
A user on Reddit claimed they were a classmate of the alleged victim. They said: ‘I go to St. James and honestly this shook me to my core, knowing there was a teacher involving themselves with students I know scared me. what if this happened to me or my friends?
‘What got to me was how people reacted. when the student came back to school everyone started congratulating him, praising him and people on Snapchat were posting about how pretty she was and how lucky he was, that is disgusting.’
Laughlin now faces charges of possession of child pornography, tampering with a victim, tampering with physical evidence and the sexual trafficking of a child.
Along with those charges – she also faces one misdemeanor count of furnishing pornographic materials to minors.
Just one of the charges that Laughlin faces could land her more than 20 years in prison. She faces a bond appearance hearing on November 14.
(Daily Mail)
