Samantha Fitzpatrick, a 28-year-old former Ripon High School teacher, has been charged with child enticement and sexual assault of a student after she was accused of having a sexual relationship with a 17-year-old student.
According to the criminal report, Ripon Police received a tip on April 24 from someone who said she had information regarding an “inappropriate relationship” between Fitzpatrick and a student. The unidentified student told police that the victim and Fitzpatrick had “done stuff” at a hotel in Ripon.
Following this, police spoke with another teacher at Ripon High School who said she noticed the victim was in Fitzpatrick’s classroom a lot. While Fitzpatrick denied that she was having a sexual relationship with the student, police say they found “extensive electronic communication by phone including the use of Facebook Messenger.”
The student also denied having a relationship with Fitzpatrick, telling police that she had given him rides and he “had joked about having sex with her.”
via Action 2 News:
The victim denied having a relationship with Fitzpatrick. He told police that she had given him rides and he had joked about having sex with her.
Phone records show 67 phone calls from the victim’s phone to Fitzpatrick’s phone. The victim’s phone number had been deleted from Fitzpatrick’s phone, but investigators were able to extract data. Officers were able to view Facebook messages between Fitzpatrick and the victim. The messages were sent between Nov. 2016 and May 2017.
The criminal complaint states that an officer saw “sexually graphic messages” between Fitzpatrick and the victim. The messages include descriptions of sex acts they would perform on each other. Some messages refer to apparent sexual encounters between the teacher and the student.
In some messages, Fitzpatrick expresses her love for the victim, according to the complaint. In one set of messages, Fitzpatrick appears to be soliciting sexually-explicit images from the victim.
Fitzgerald resigned from Ripon High School back in May and an arrest warrant was issued on December 5.
The Ripon Area School District released the following statement about Fitzpatrick’s charges:
“In May of 2017, the district shared the attached information with high school parents about an investigation regarding allegations of improper conduct by former employee Samantha Fitzpatrick. We are sharing this information with all district parents today as we are aware the investigation involving former employee Samantha Fitzpatrick is complete and a criminal complaint with charges has been issued. We have just received this information and will respond once we have an opportunity to review and understand the criminal complaint.”
This is the latest in a string of teacher/student sex scandals this year. In November, Tennessee teacher Janet Smothers was arrested. Former nutrition teacher LaToya Parker was also arrested for a relationship with a student. Florida teacher Caroline Lawson was charged with sexual assault. 26-year-old Allyson Moran was also arrested for similar crimes. The 23-year-old high school teacher Katherine Ross Ridenhour was also arrested for an inappropriate relationship.
Furthermore, Hunter Day, 22, was also arrested after a sting operation. Megan Kotarski was also arrested on similar charges. Michelle Schiffer, a 23-year-old history teacher in Texas, was also charged and arrested for allegedly having sex with a teenage student. 29-year-old Alyssia Marie Reddy was arrested in Maryland for her crimes in New Jersey.
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