Felicia Williams-Watson, a former athletic trainer at Massac County High School who was accused of alleged sex crimes against an underage victim, pleaded guilty to two counts of aggravated sexual abuse on Tuesday, March 19.
According to reports, Williams-Watson — who was originally charged with four counts of sexual assault and two counts of aggravated sexual abuse — had the four counts of sexual assault dropped in her plea agreement.
Willaims-Watson, who was first charged in 2018, allegedly had illegal sexual relations with two male students under the age of 18-years-old.
As part of her guilty plea, Williams-Wason must serve 48 months of probation, pay fines, and is barred from working with anyone under the age of 18-years-old. However, Williams-Watson will not serve any jail time.
Willaims-Watson is just the latest in a string of education officials to be arrested and charged for sex-related crimes.
Since the beginning of 2019 alone, a handful of teachers have been arrested on similar charges, including Beulah High School teacher Kelsie Schmidt in North Dakota, Rancocas Valley Regional High School teacher Alexandra Reiner in New Jersey, and 50-year-old Florida substitute teacher Angela Jean Stanton in Florida. Additionally, Texas teacher Meredith Null was arrested on similar charges.
As for why there has been an increase in teacher’s being charged with sex-related crimes over recent years, studies suggest that smartphones are the primary reason for the spike in illicit relationships, as it allows teachers to communicate with the minors without supervision.
According to a report from the Texas Education Association, smartphones make easy for teachers to privately text and talk with students and also make it possible for teachers and students to share explicit images.
That is all the information that is available at this time. This article will be updated with new and relevant information should it become available at any time. If there is anything that we missed, please feel free to send an email to editor@teamcoed.com and we will respond as soon as possible.
