Cougars in the classroom: The alarming rate of teachers charged with raping young boys in America

A shocking number of female teachers are accused of sexually abusing underage students – with new cases being reported almost every week.

Earlier this month, married New Jersey teacher Jessica Sawiciki, 37, was arrested after police found her half-naked in the backseat of a teen’s car at a nature center. The mother-of-two is said to have admitted to police that she and the student had had ‘unprotected’ sex at least five times.

But she is just one in a long line of alleged female sex predators targeting young people across the country, with alarming cases from California to New York.

DailyMail.com found that 25 female teachers have been arrested in 16 states in the past 12 months. It is feared that this is just the tip of the iceberg as there appears to be no centralized data collection to track this disturbing trend.

Many of the suspects are married and one of them has even been named teacher of the year. In addition to sending sexually explicit text messages, nude photos and videos, some buy their victims’ silence with cash and expensive gifts.

But why have these cases seemingly become so prolific in recent years? In a conversation with leading child psychologist Dr. Michael Oberschneider of Ashburn Psychological Services has credited the influence of social media with contributing to the abuse dynamic.

“Social media can blur the boundaries between student-teacher relationships, which in turn can open the doors to more inappropriate outcomes.

He explained that “students now have more access to their teachers through various online formats, which can lead to inappropriate communication and even inappropriate relationships of a sexual nature.

‘As we’ve seen in the news, some female teachers choose to post sexually oriented content on sites like OnlyFans, Loyalfans, Fansly and other similar platforms, which students can then be a part of.

He said that “even Instagram and other social media platforms allow students to see and possibly interact with their teacher in more personal or intimate ways outside the classroom.”

Another contributing factor, he said, is that the 24-hour news cycle is part of the phenomenon we’re seeing as more and more of these cases are being reported.

By his estimate, 80 percent of teachers who abuse underage students are still predominantly male,

He explains that the research shows that men are more opportunistic, predatory and aggressive, with the motivation focused on sex.

While female teachers tend to be motivated, it seems, to abuse their students in different ways and for different reasons, and this has more to do with emotional conflict, unmet intimacy needs, personal problems, loneliness and feelings of isolation.

Heather Hare, a teacher at Bryant High School, was charged with first-degree sexual assault after recent allegations of sexual misconduct involving a student came to light. Hare, who is from Arkansas, turned himself in

Emma Delaney Hancock, 26, a former substitute teacher at Wellston High School in Oklahoma, had an alleged sexual relationship with a 15-year-old boy, whose father is Wellston Mayor Paul Whitnah and Hancock’s husband is the police chief from Wellston

Lexy, 23, a teacher from Long Island, believes these predatory teachers are giving new teachers, just like those in the field, a bad reputation.

“It is extremely disturbing and disheartening to see young teachers abusing their power and taking advantage of young students,” she said.

‘As teachers, we are committed to helping students and preparing them for their future. You spend all day with them and for a year you really get to know these students. “I couldn’t imagine that anyone would go into education with the intention of hurting and abusing these students.”

But a 53-year-old teacher who has worked in the New York City school district for more than a decade said it’s so unimaginable given the age gap and labeled it as people not being considered normal.

“I really don’t think they’re giving other teachers a bad name because it’s so exaggerated.”

Business Insider’s Matt Drange revealed in his report the emoji-filled text messages from teachers, handwritten complaints from students, transcripts of HR investigations, and a vast trove of pages from disciplinary files of teachers investigated for sexual misconduct.

Drange said the pages “documented grooming and groping, sharing of dicks and porn, sexualized comments in classrooms, oral sex in bathrooms and statutory rape,” which he said in some cases continued for years.”

His report highlights a troubling pattern of “school administrators across the United States catastrophically failing to prevent abuse,” and there is no federal agency, he said, that tracks teacher sexual misconduct.

Drang said that during his investigation he requested disciplinary records and severance agreements from the 10 largest school districts in all 50 states, and license revocations from each state’s education department, but his request was met with opposition.

Alabama, Iowa and Virginia, he said, refused to release records. While other districts asked for compensation to meet the request.

In his report, he wrote that the Hawaii Department of Education requested $75,060. The Katy Independent School District in Texas wanted $125,352, and the Lincoln Public Schools in Nebraska billed $243,836.

While other districts, he revealed, never provided data, including Alaska’s Bering Street School District. In 2019, the BSSD paid $12.6 million to 13 victims of sexual abuse involving an instructor at the school.

Springfield Public Schools in Massachusetts was another district he cited that would not release data, claiming it would be a “violation of teacher privacy that outweighs any possible right of the public to know.”

Stephanie Woods, 28, a biology teacher, tennis and basketball coach from San Antonio, Texas, was arrested after allegedly having an inappropriate relationship with a 17-year-old girl

Allie Kheradmand, 33, of Virgina, was arrested for an inappropriate sexual relationship with a James Madison High School student that lasted several months

Allie Elizabeth Bardfield, a married mother of four, from Illinois, was accused of verbally abusing and raping an 11-year-old boy. The young victim assisted police in the sting operations

According to the nonprofit National Association of State Directors of Teacher Education and Certification, or NASDTEC.

That figure is an underestimate, as many states do not indicate why a teacher’s credentials were suspended or revoked.

Jimmy Adams, executive director of NASDETEC, said that of the 6,000 incidents received annually, only a very small percentage are sexual misconduct.

Billie-Jo Grant, a leading researcher into school sexual abuse, and president of McGrath Training Solutions, told DailyMail.com that there is no government intervention to track these incidents.

Between March 1, 2023 and March 21, 2024, there have been 113 arrests for non-contact sexual misconduct involving students.

This number includes certified teachers as well as other school personnel, including coaches, administrators, teacher aides and bus drivers.

Erin Ward, 45, a substitute teacher from Omaha, Nebraska and mother of three, was caught naked in a car with a teenage student earlier this month and admitted to having sex with a 17-year-old student from the same high school

Fourth-grade English teacher, 38, accused of raping 12-year-old child in her Tennessee home