An Idaho high school teacher has been sentenced to a minimum of two years and up to 20 years in prison after pleading guilty to sexual battery of a minor. Jessica Lawson, 36, admitted to two counts of sexual battery as part of a plea agreement, according to court records. As part of the deal, additional charges for providing alcohol to a minor and delivering a controlled substance were dismissed, the New York Post reported.
Lawson was arrested in St. Anthony, Idaho, in November 2023 when police stopped a car driven by a teenage boy with Lawson in the passenger seat. According to reports from the Idaho State Journal, East Idaho News, and Local News 8, police said Lawson had instructed the boy to drive because she was too “drunk”.
The car was initially pulled over for a broken taillight, and the boy reportedly confessed to possessing marijuana. The boy’s parents later informed police that Lawson had picked him up the previous night, and he admitted to receiving alcohol and marijuana from her before they engaged in sexual activity.
Lawson, a former teacher at South Fremont High School, will serve at least two years in prison. She was also issued a 20-year no-contact order with the victim, according to East Idaho News.
“It takes a village to raise a young man, especially a young man that has been in and out of foster care, that has never known what it’s like to have a mom and a dad,” the father told the court, according to East Idaho News.
“My son is going to take a long time to heal and he doesn’t even know the wounds that he has yet. He’s not going to understand those wounds until he’s a parent and he’s sending his daughter or son … to the house of a parent that he trusts.”
The teen’s mother said that struggles to differentiate between safe and unsafe situations because of his time in the foster home.
“We brought [my son] in because he needed somebody, and he didn’t have anybody … It was pretty quick that we realized this is a really great kid, and he’s wonderful and he should be in our family,” the mother told the court.
“He’s got a lot of problems because he didn’t have a mom and dad that taught him how to recognize safe people. And you took advantage of that … she knew she could get something from him.”
