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Hey everyone, and welcome back to Exposed Scandalous Files in
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the Elite. I'm your host, Jim Chapman, and today I
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am bringing you the first episode in the Bad Teachers
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state specific series. With this series, I'm going to cover
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one state every week, and I'm going to give you
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several stories of bad teachers committing crimes with students. And
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it's an epidemic, y'all. There seemingly no end in sight
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to this now. When I announce this series a few
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episodes ago, I had a lot of responses, which thank you.
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I truly appreciate it. I love all of you for
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taking the time and making that extra effort. Y'all freaking
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rock now. With bad Teachers, typically I cover female teachers,
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So keep that in mind because there's a reason I
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do that. There are thousands of them out there, and
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they're the ones getting no jail time or very little
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jail time in almost all cases, because when it's a
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female teacher and a male student, there is a big
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discrepancy from their male counterparts. It's just not looked at
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the same way the males. They average currently eight to
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ten years in prison or longer when they're caught doing
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shit like this, the females average between one and two.
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That's a current stat, y'all. So it's the female teachers
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that really need the exposure off of my show, and
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I'm going to give them all they want and then some. Now,
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as I said today, it's all about Arkansas, and the
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first teacher that we're going to cover in Bad Teachers
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Arkansas edition is Stephanie Almond, who is a former eleventh
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grade teacher at Mammel High School in Mamel, Arkansas, who
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at the age of twenty eight, was accused of having
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a sexual relationship with a seventeen year old student. So
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with this one, there's very little in the background that
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I could find in the way of Stephanie. I do
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know she was an eleventh grade English teacher at Mameil
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High and she was admired by her peers for her dedication.
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She was divorced, and she was mother to a young son.
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So I'm going to take you back to twenty twenty
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one in students with notice miss Almond's favoritism toward a
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particular seventeen year old boy, and we're going to call
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him Victim one to protect his identity. And Victim one
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was a typical team, athletic, impressionable, and obviously in this case,
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a target for the teacher. Now, Arkansas, like many states,
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they have strict laws against teacher student relationships. And even
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though the age of consent is sixteen and this boy
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was seventeen, when there's a power imbalance, like a teacher
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over a student or a police officer over a seventeen
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year old kid, it's a felony regardless, and that's important.
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And Almond knew this. She was a teacher that was
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trained on ethics in boundaries, yet she chose to cross
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that line. And it's important to note the education in Arkansas.
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It's not glamorous when you go into education. You're not
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going into it to be a millionaire, right, But teachers
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like Almond, they did hold an elite status in their community,
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the gatekeepers. Teachers may not be rock stars, but they
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are in a lot of ways because the role models
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to these kids and often confidance to these kids. And
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with her status as a teacher, you can imagine how
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much this case would rock the community. So on May
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of twenty twenty one, fellow students start spotting red flags.
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They noticed that Almond and victim number one they were
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spending a lot of time together alone inside of the classroom.
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So one student reports this odd behavior to school officials.
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They start investigating, and eventually it gets escalated to police.
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So police in turn, they interview students at that school,
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and those students will provide details inside a look inside,
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if you will, into that relationship. And one of the
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things they would say was Almond had kind of a
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secret drop point for letters that she would exchange with
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victim number one. She would use a trash can and
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she would drop notes in that trash can, and then
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victim number one will go to the trash can and
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pick those notes up, pull them out of the trash
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and read them. Now, one student, after being asked by
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Stephanie the teacher to respond to dating app requests. Now,
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before I go any further, yeah, you just heard me, right.
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This teacher goes to a student and says, I'm on
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a dating app and I'm getting too many requests. I
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guess because she thought she was hot, and I need
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you to go through here and just respond to these
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for me. You're asking a student to do that. Really,
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it's all needs to be said. But she did, in
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fact ask this student to respond to these dating app requests,
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and according to the student, he found a lot of
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flirty texts between her and the victim. Exchange, Almond asked
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the victim if he wanted to quote break up, and
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he replied, quote, couldn't do it anymore. That was just
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some strange texts back and forth that may raise a
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red flag. And as police dug further, they found out
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a student recorded Almond admitting that lines got a little
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blurry between her and the victim when she was asked
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by the student about her relationship with the victim. Well,
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I guess line's got kind of blurred. Police then interviewed
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the victim, and of course, he confessed to everything. He said.
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He visited Almond's little Rock home twice, once for a
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quote study session that turned sexual and again for more
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the same, and he said they kissed a lot at school,
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and she even flashed a nude photo of herself while
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he was sitting in his desk that she had on
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her phone during class time. Other students could see that.
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And this wasn't a one off, y'all. It was grooming
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one oh one. The school district, they acted fast. They
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placed Almond on administrative leave, and they launched an internal investigation,
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but the damage at this point was done. Of course,
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when parents heard about this, they were furious. They were
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demanding answers. How did this slip through the cracks? Now,
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this is a district that served thousands of people, So
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was this an isolated incident or did we have a
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major problem here? And as the investigation kind of deepened,
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more details would emerge. Almand's personal life was unrivaling. She
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had a messy divorce and then a custody battle over
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her son, and so some people were thinking, well, maybe
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stress pushed her over the edge and caused her to
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have sex with this student, and or was this a
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pattern where this was one of many students they didn't know.
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Sources close to the case hinted at prior rumors with students,
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but nothing was ever substantiated. Now, by June of twenty
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twenty one, the story hits the local news. Social media
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would explode, Facebook post It was pretty much the talk
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of Arkansas at this point. Then, on July first of
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twenty twenty one, Little Rock police arrested Almond on first
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three sexual assault charges, which is a class A felony
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carrying up to thirty years in prison. In the state
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of Arkansas. She pleaded not guilty, She posted bond, and
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then the legal bs starts right coordinates dragged on for
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nearly two years. Now, this was remember the date here.
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She was arrested in twenty twenty one, and they had
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COVID backlogs from prior to that. So her case just
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got kind of put in line. And you have to
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fast forward all the way to August of twenty twenty three,
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when at a bench trial in Pulaski County Circuit Court
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before Judge Leon Johnson, that prosecutors drop one count and
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downgraded the charge to third degree sexual assault plea bargan
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still a felony, but a Class D felon. Now, why
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the plea deal. Insiders say that they wanted to spare
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the victim of what was going to be considered a
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girling testimony, and they also allegedly considered Almond's clean record,
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Plus she had a custody battle going on. Maybe some
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people felt sorry for her. So Almond takes that plea
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deal and she pleaded guilty, and what happens. What do
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you think she got? Well, she gets a whopping six
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years perbation. That's it. A fifteen hundred dollars fine and
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probably the worst thing that happened to her a lifetime
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sex offender registration. But she got no prison time. Zero.
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She was ordered to have no contact with the victim
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and undergo counseling. And that's a great example of why
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I even do this Bad Teacher series. No jail time,
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basically a slap on the rest. So let's go to
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our second bad teacher for today, and that is Leanne
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Ruthan Queen. Now, she was an Arkansas educator who went
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from a small town pe teacher to a convicted sex offender.
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I'm going to cover the grooming, the assaults, and the
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arrest that absolutely shocked Gentry, Arkansas in the time that
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she was arrested. Some things on Lea ruth and Queen.
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She was born in the early nineteen eighties, so that
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made her forty three years old when all this shit
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went down in twenty twenty two. She was raised in
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the rural Ozarks and she settled in Westville, Oklahoma, which
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is just across the Arkansas border. Professional life was firmly
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planted in Gentry, Arkansas. Now. Gentry is a quiet little
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town about thirty five hundred people in Benton County, Arkansas,
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home of Walmart. Right, Gentry is the kind of place
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where everyone knows everyone in the schools are pretty much
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the heartbeat of that community. Now. As a pe teacher
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at Gentry Intermediate School, she coached young minds and bodies,
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shaped the next generation, if you will. She was an
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approachable type of teacher that a lot of kids looked
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up to. But beneath that facade of this just great
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approachable teacher was a woman holding some very dark secrets.
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For a long time now, she was married, once divorced,
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in by all accounts, living a double life. Now. Teachers
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like Queen represent a subtle power structure in small towns.
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Educators aren't just teachers, y'all. They're community leaders. They're even
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surrogate parents in a lot of cases. Think about it.
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They hold a lot of power. They hold power over grades,
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they hold power over a child's future. And just like
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the case I discussed just a few minutes ago, it's
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important to remember Arkansas law recognizes the imbalance, making a
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teacher student sexual contact a felony no matter the age,
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if the student is under twenty one and enrolled in school. Now,
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some of the things to note as it relates to Queen. First,
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she was an extremely respected teacher. As a matter of fact,
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in twenty nineteen, she gets recognized for her teaching skills
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by being named Benton County's Teacher of the Year in
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twenty nineteen, and in twenty twenty two, after moving to
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another county, she is recognized as Gentry Counties Teacher of
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the Year. That's a big deal. But the story that
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I'm about to tell you about goes back over a decade.
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As a matter of fact, it goes back to twenty ten,
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when she's in her late twenties. And one thing when
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I was researching this case, in researching Leah Queen was
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she had kind of a transformation in her life. I
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don't know what kind of role it played in this case,
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but she was a larger woman back in two thousand
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and ten, two thousand and nine, two thousand and eight,
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and she went through a dramatic weight loss. And after
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her weight loss, talk about a gorgeous woman, and you
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know the pictures that I've seen that are somewhat recent,
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very beautiful lady. But back in those days, she apparently
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struggled with her weight and she was very open about this.
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Very proud of the weight she had lost because she
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had a very active Twitter page. I'm gonna upload a
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lot of before and after pictures of this particular teacher
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on the Patreon, but I don't know if it played
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a role, So let's get back to it. She was
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in her late twenties at this point, twenty ten, and
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she was teaching at what was then an intermediate school.
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And that's when she crossed paths with a seventeen year
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old high school boy. Let's call him Alex to kind
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of shield his identity. And Alex was athletic, impressionable, He's
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navigating life right as a as a young kid in Queen,
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she would see this allegedly as an opportunity. And I'm
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not unpack how this friendship began, but first I want
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you to consider the context. Arkansas in twenty ten was
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grappling with similar teacher scandals nationwide. Yet small towns, unlike
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bigger towns, they can often sweep this these type of
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things under the rug, and they often did, and no
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one suspected Queen until twenty twenty two when the past
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came roaring back. So twelve years later now, according to
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Core documents, the grooming aspect of this relationship started at
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a basketball game in early twenty ten. Queen, as a
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pee coach, was there in her official capacity as a coach,
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and Alex was a high school junior, and he apparently
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caught her eye in what started out as casual chitchad
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would evolve. By March of twenty ten. They were connected
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on social media Facebook, likely back when that was the
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go to platform. Messages would fly back and forth, innocent
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at first, and then they started getting a lot more flirty.
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Now Queen, obviously the adult in authority at that point,
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should have shut it down, but instead she escalates this
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inappropriate conversation and they began hanging out outside of school.
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They would meet up with each other, they would go
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on drives together, and it would start blurring those teacher
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student boundaries. Now, Alex was still seventeen, still a kid
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in the eyes of the law. For these purposes, Queen,
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she was over a decade older at this time, obviously
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using her position to build trust with this kid, and
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witness would later describe disturbing behavior. They would say that
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Queen doated on him, that she would treat him like
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a peer rather than her student, and her ex husband
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would even coroborate seeing them together in ways that, let's