Leona Nivens has been identified as the 33-year-old Arkansas teacher who has been arrested and charged for allegedly having sexual contact with an underage student.
Nivens, who was arrested at her home in Prescott, Arkansas, on Tuesday, April 23 without incident, allegedly had “improper sexual contact” with a 15-year-old high school student in the Prescott School District.
Prescott Police Chief Joseph Beavers said that Nivens allegedly had “improper sexual contact” with a teenager while working as a teacher in the Prescott School District.
Following her arrested on April 23, Nivens was officially charged with second-degree sexual assault.
According to the Prescott School District, Nivens has been placed on administrative leave and will remain on leave pending the outcome of the police investigation into her alleged crimes.
At the time of this writing, it is unclear when Nivens was eventually released from police custody.
Nivens 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 the number of these incidents has seemingly increased, 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.
