Tom GantertHouma, LA – A teacher who had sex with several high school students won’t go to prison or have to register as a sex offender.
Former Terrebone Parish substitute teacher Heidi Verrett, 34, admitted to having sex with three underage boys in a plea deal that kept her from going to jail, Houma Today reported.
In 2016, police received a report about possible sexual misconduct and investigators discovered Verrett was having inappropriate conversations on social media with the boys.
At the time, Verrett was working as a teacher’s aide and an occasional substitute teacher in the school district, Houma Today reported.
The teacher was arrested after investigators determined she had been having sex with three teenage boys who were 15 and 16 years old.
They also learned she had been having “inappropriate” private message conversations with a 12-year-old boy, Houma Today reported.
Verrett was charged with three felony counts of carnal knowledge of juvenile and one count of indecent behavior with a juvenile.
She ultimately pleaded guilty in March to three misdemeanor counts of carnal knowledge of a juvenile and one count of contributing to the delinquency of a juvenile.
The plea deal she struck kept her from having to go to jail or register as a sex offender, according to Houma Today.
District Judge Johnny Walker gave Verrett a six-month suspended sentence and put her on two years of unsupervised probation.
She was also ordered to pay $900, Houma Today reported.
The plea agreement also allows Verrett to teach again in two years.
But prosecutors said she won’t teach in Terrebonne Parish again.
“In addition to the plea agreement there have been extensive communications between our office and the School Board,” Assistant District Attorney Dennis Elfert told Houma Today. “We have been assured she would never be able to teach in the school system again. From a legal standpoint, the maximum probationary period is two years, and that is the extent to which the probation can legally be bound.”
“But we specifically indicated to the victims’ families that we have been assured that regardless of whatever the legal requirements are the School Board would never allow her to teach here again,” Elfert said.