Teacher sexually assaulted underage boy who drove her home while drunk

SAINT ANTHONY, Neb. (WKRC) - A teacher pled guilty to sexually assaulting a 16-year-old boy who she gave marijuana and made drive her car after she got too drunk.

Police pulled over a vehicle with broken taillights on Nov. 6, 2023, and were surprised to see a 16-year-old boy in the driver's seat and a drunk adult woman in the passenger seat.

The woman, who owned the car, was 36-year-old Jessica Lawson, a teacher from the area.

According to the 16-year-old, Lawson picked the boy up from his home without his parents' knowledge at around 11 p.m. that night and took him back to her home. The boy said she gave him marijuana to smoke while she drank alcohol, then the two "engaged in sex acts together," said Deputy Attorney General Madison Allen.

Lawson called the boy's parents and told them he was at her house and that he had drunk alcohol, but did not mention the marijuana or sex, according to a report from East Idaho News. She was arrested in November of 2023 but pleaded not guilty.

Lawson took a plea deal on Thursday and admitted to sexually assaulting the minor, but through the deal was able to drop two charges of felony rape of a minor and charges of felony delivery of a controlled substance and misdemeanor dispensing alcohol to a minor. She was only charged with two counts of sexual battery of a child.

Lawson was sentenced to 2 to 20 years in prison and will have to attend sex offender treatment and register as a sex offender.

The 16-year-old's parents are extremely upset about the situation, especially since they adopted the boy mere days before the incident occurred.

"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 teenager's father said.

"My son is going to take a long time to heal and he doesn't even know the wounds that he has yet."