Pregnant middle school teacher sleeps with 15-year-old student, sends nude photos

A middle school teacher in Texas is facing six year behind bars in addition to a 10-year probated sentence after she pleaded guilty to engaging in sexual conduct with one of her students.

According to the Fort Worth Star Telegram, 28-year-old Katherine Ruth Harper will be required to register as a sex offender for the rest of her life.

She was arrested following an investigation that began in December 2016 when officials at Tidwell Middle School received an online tip detailing the alleged abuse.

The school reportedly received a similar complaint several months earlier but an internal probe soon ended due to an apparent lack of evidence.

New details emerged in the form of the second tip and a subsequent police investigation.

Denton County First Assistant Criminal District Attorney Jamie Beck said that the teacher was pregnant during the summer of 2016 when she began a sexual relationship with her student, a 15-year-old boy.

The victim was a student at the Roanoke school where she taught and was enrolled in Harper’s seventh-grade English class at the time, according to reports.

After their relationship began with the exchange of text messages, they were soon trading nude images and eventually met off campus. At that point, the student said Harper provided him with alcohol and the two removed their clothes before he performed a sexual act on her.

“One thing led to another and she told me to ‘put it in,’ and I did,” the student said, according to a police warrant.

Throughout June and July of the same year, investigators say Harper and the student had sex on multiple occasions at both her home and his.

Harper was arrested in March 2017, according to KDFW. She was eight months pregnant at that time.

She subsequently pleaded guilty to criminal counts including sexual assault of a child and having an improper relationship with a student.

[Featured image: Katherine Ruth Harper/Trophy Club Police Department]