Allison Briel has been identified as the 25-year-old Loudoun County High School teacher that was arrested by the Leesburg Police Department on Tuesday, April 30, due to allegations of inappropriate communication with underage students.
While Briel — who is from Leesburg, Virginia — was officially charged with three counts of contributing to the delinquency of a minor, she was not charged with any sex-related crimes.
Following her arrest, Briel — who had been working at Loudoun County High School as a marketing teacher since August 2017 — was taken to the Loudoun County Adult Detention Center in Virginia, where she was being held on a $2,500 bond.
At this time, the nature of the communication between Briel and the unidentified student is unclear.
Briel is just one of many education officials to be arrested and charged for inappropriate contact with an underage student 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.
