Idaho teacher convicted of sexually assaulting and raping teenager who was adopted by a local family days earlier

A former Idaho teacher has been sentenced to prison for sexually assaulting and raping a minor who was adopted from the foster care system by a local family just days before her attack.

Jessica Lawson, 36, accepted a plea deal on sexual assault and rape of a minor charges. She was previously charged with delivery of a controlled substance and delivery of alcohol to a minor for allegedly giving the 16-year-old marijuana and alcohol. However, those charges were dropped as part of the deal.

Lawson – who taught at South Fremont High School from August 2021 to June 2023 – faces two to 20 years in prison and must register as a sex offender and undergo sex offender treatment. The victim will also be banned from contact for 20 years.

On the morning of November 6, 2023, a Saint Anthony Police Department officer stopped Lawson’s car because her vehicle did not have visible taillights. The officer found the teen behind the wheel after receiving the keys from Lawson, who was too “drunk to drive,” authorities said.

The boy admitted to using marijuana given to him by Lawson and was driven home by the officer. Lawson was arrested later that week after the boy told his parents that she had picked him up that night and described how they had smoked and drank alcohol before having sex.

Lawson called the teen’s parents and admitted giving him alcohol and picking him up, but denied that “anything else happened,” including the alleged sexual acts and drug use.

The teen’s parents, who adopted him just days before his attack, said that while their son had no real idea of ​​what was happening, he will be dealing with the consequences of Lawson’s violation for many years to come.

“It takes a village to raise a young man, especially a young man who has been in and out of foster care and has never experienced what it’s like to have a mother and a father,” the father said, according to East Court Idaho News.

“My son will take a long time to heal and he doesn’t even know what wounds he has. He will only understand these wounds when he becomes a mother himself and sends his daughter or son to live with a parent he trusts.”

The teen’s mother also confirmed that his time in the foster care system makes it difficult for him to distinguish between safe and unsafe situations.

“We brought with us [my son] “He came here because he needed someone, but he didn’t have anyone… Pretty quickly we realized that this is a really great boy, he’s wonderful and he should be in our family,” the mother told the court.

“He has a lot of problems because he didn’t have parents who taught him how to recognize safe people. And you took advantage of that…she knew she could get something from him.”

The victim’s parents believe Lawson would have received a harsher sentence if she had been a male perpetrator or her son a girl, but Sentencing Senior District Judge Stephen Dunn disputed this.

If you have been sexually assaulted and live in New York, you can call 1-800-942-6906 for free and confidential crisis counseling. If you live out of state, you can call the National Sexual Assault Hotline 24 hours a day at 1-800-656-4673.