Kelsey Leigh Gutierrez, a 25-year-old former Santa Fe Independent School District teacher in Texas who arrested back in 2016 for allegedly having sex with two underage students, reportedly entered a plea deal on Wednesday, April 3.
According to reports, Gutierrez — who was originally charged with three counts of improper relationship between educator and student following her 2016 arrest — allegedly had sex with two different teen students a total of three separate times.
As part of her plea deal, the former Texas teacher pleaded guilty one count of purchasing and furnishing alcohol to a minor. As punishment, the former teacher will be forced to participate in one year of community service.
Kelsey Leigh Gutierrez is just one of many education officials to be arrested and charged for sex-related crimes in recent years.
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 teachers Meredith Null and Edna Longoria were 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.