This week’s substitute high school teacher arrested for having sex romps with two male teens at her house is Laura Rich.
Police say Rich, 38, had sexual encounters with a 16-year-old student and an 18-year-old student who attended the alternative high school where she taught in suburban Atlanta’s Cherokee County school district.
The Cherokee County Sheriff’s Office stressed that Rich’s alleged sex romps with the teens did not occur simultaneously.
“It happened at her home and they plotted going back and forth from the school to her house,” Cherokee County Sheriff spokesman Jay Baker told Atlanta Fox affiliate WAGA-TV. “This was not forced. It was consensual. But it was still inappropriate and it’s a crime for a teacher to have sex with student. Her profession as a teacher is what makes this a crime.”
The trysts occurred in 2015 at Rich’s home in Acworth (pop: 28,502), authorities say.
“Both of them, we believe, there was more than one occurrence,” Baker told local ABC affiliate WSB-TV. The sheriff’s office spokesman added that he believed the highly star-crossed affair with “the 16-year-old lasted a little longer, a couple months” while the affair with “the 18-year-old happened later in the year” and was more of a fleeting romance.
Rich’s substitute teaching gig had been at Ace Academy in Canton. The school describes itself as “a disciplinary alternative setting for high school (9-12) students.”
School district officials released a statement saying that Rich “no longer is permitted to work as a substitute teacher” in the Cherokee County district, according to Atlanta NBC affiliate WXIA-TV. “Our School District has zero tolerance for inappropriate relationships between students and any adults serving in any capacity in our schools.”
Rich either resigned or was fired on August 19, 2016.
It’s not clear how the sheriff’s office found out about the alleged encounters.
Authorities arrested Rich on Friday on a pair of counts of sexual assault by a teacher. She is currently free on a $22,400 bond.
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