A former Ohio schoolteacher has pleaded guilty to charges stemming from her three-year “relationship” with her student-turned-foster son that resulted in a baby.
Laura Lynn Cross, 37, appeared in court Friday and pleaded guilty to three counts of sexual battery, the Beacon Journal reported. Prosecutors said Cross became romantically involved with the 16-year-old boy in 2014 while he was a freshman at Buchtel High School.
The teen, who is African-American, was living with Cross at the time after she was granted “partial parental custody” by convincing the teen’s mother to let her “mentor” the teen at her Tallamadge home. She would later give birth to the boy’s son in December 2015, two years after he moved in with her. Cross was married with four kids at the time according to Heavy.com. Her now-deleted Facebook page was filled with pictures of her and the teen.
The teen’s parents grew concerned about the arrangement prior to the baby’s birth, however.
In June 2015, the boy’s mother filed a complaint with Akron police about the alleged affair and contacted authorities in Tallagmadge, where her son was living with Cross, according to the Beacon Journal.
The teen’s father reportedly made his concerns known to police since 2012 when the boy was a freshman. Despite both their concerns, charges weren’t filed until after police found out that Cross had given birth to the boy’s child. News 5 Cleveland said someone tipped off the teen’s father about the child’s birth, asking him if he knew he was a grandfather.
“First of all, she’s a schoolteacher,” the teen’s father, who didn’t identify himself, told local WEWS-TV. “To get aroused by a child, basically you have to be a sick individual.”
Cross was officially charged in August 2017, nearly two years after giving birth. What’s worse, a spokesperson for the Akron School System said the district was unaware of the case until a WEWS-TV investigation alerted them to it. Cross resigned from Buchtel High School in 2015.
“It was a straight failure from the system,” said the teen’s father said. “From the school and definitely from the police.”
Cross is scheduled to be sentenced May 24.
