Six female teachers have been criminally charged over the past two days after previously engaging in sexual activity with students. The cases stem from teacher trysts with underage minors in Kentucky, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Iowa, Virginia, and Pennsylvania, the New York Post reported.
A school staff member in Kentucky reportedly took part in sexual liaisons with a pair of 16-year-old males. Prosecutors identified her as 38-year-old Ellen Shell, of Danville. She was arraigned in Garrard County District Court on Thursday after authorities said she had sex with the teens on two separate occasions in July and August of last year.
Shell worked at Woodlawn Elementary School as a teacher’s aide. She had previous employment at Lancaster Elementary School. She had been placed on administrative leave pending case resolution, according to WTKR.
Boyle County School officials sent out a letter to parents notifying them of the investigation and subsequent arrest, the news outlet reported.
Shell’s arrest was just one of at least six recent cases of female educators engaging in sexual misconduct with teens under their authority in recent days, according to several reports. This has also been an alarming trend in the nation over the past several years.
Ellen Shell (Screenshot 3 WTKR)
Heather Hare, 32, a high school teacher in Arkansas was expected to surrender to authorities on Friday for an alleged sexual relationship with a teen student. She faces first-degree felony sexual assault charges, the Arkansas Times reported.
Heather Hare (Bryant Police Department)
Emma Delaney Hancock, 26, worked as a substitute teacher in Oklahoma. She taught in Wellston Public Schools in Lincoln County. She was arrested Thursday after a law enforcement investigation revealed she had a sexual relationship with a 15-year-old student, the New York Post reported.
According to investigators, Hancock began communicating with the teen last October via Snapchat and eventually sent the boy nude photos, according to KOCO.
“The text messages ended up being lewd in nature, and they progressed,” Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation (OSBI) spokesperson Gerald Davidson said.
Court documents also detail that their relationship became physical during the first week of November inside a school building.
“Once the district became aware of the allegations, the substitute was immediately removed from our call list and not allowed back on campus,” Wellston Public Schools officials said in a statement. “In addition, the district immediately notified local, county and state (OSBI) law enforcement officials. The district cooperated when asked, throughout OSBI’s investigation.”
Emma Hancock (Image via New York Post)
Kristen Gantt, 36, an English teacher at a Catholic high school in Des Moines, Iowa, reportedly had sex with a teen student five times on campus as well as other locations.
According to local reports on Friday, investigators said she groomed the student over social media — and that surveillance cameras caught them going into a classroom alone covering the window.
She faces multiple felony counts of sexual exploitation and has since been terminated from employment by the school, the New York Post reported.
Kristen Gantt (Screenshot KCC! 8)
Allieh Kheradmand, 33, a teacher at James Madison High School in Fairfax County, Virginia was also nabbed for allegedly having sex with a student over the course of several months, according to FFXNow.
The student “disclosed an inappropriate sexual relationship” to school administrators, who notified law enforcement on Wednesday, the Fairfax County Police Department said in a news release on Friday.
“Detectives were notified and assumed the investigation,” the Fairfax County Police Department said. “Detectives determined Allieh Kheradmand, 33, of Reston had unlawful contact with a student over the past several months.”
Kheradmand, a learning disabilities teacher with Fairfax County Schools since 2016, has been charged with four counts of indecent liberties and is being held without bond.
Allieh Kheradmand (Screenshot Oklahoma News 4)
Finally, a high school track and field coach who is also a teacher in Pennsylvania was arrested and charged with sexually assaulting a male student-athlete whom she admitted to being romantically involved with, prosecutors alleged.
The case of Hannah Marth, 26, was reported by Law Officer on Friday. The javelin coach with the Northampton Area High School track team, was taken into custody after police learned she had engaged in a sexual relationship with the student-athlete, prosecutors allege. She is also an Easton Area School District teacher, according to The Morning Call.
On May 22, 2021, Marth sent the teen a text message and invited the boy to her home where the two reportedly engaged in sex. The woman was the javelin coach during the time while the student was an active member of the track and field program, the Northampton District Attorney said in a news release.
She reportedly confessed to the ongoing relationship, which lasted until October of 2022, according to the district attorney’s office. The student is 17-years-old.
Marth has been charged with institutional sexual assault and sexual assault by a sports official. Each offense is a third-degree felony, the New York Post reported.
The coach was a standout member of the track and field team when she attended Northampton. She was arraigned Thursday and later released on $75,000 unsecured bail.
Hannah Marth (East Stroudsburg University)
“A trusted relationship between a student-athlete, an athlete’s parent, and a coach can be a vulnerable one,” said District Attorney Terence Houck. “An abuse of that relationship shows a coach’s blatant disregard for the well-being of those she or he coached, and above all – the law. This defendant defied that trust when she committed this alleged crime against the victim.”
