Teacher convicted of sexually assaulting teen who reportedly drove her drunk

SAINT ANTHONY, Neb. (WKRC) – A former teacher was convicted last week of sexually assaulting a teenager to whom she allegedly gave marijuana and forced him to drive her car after she became too drunk.

Police stopped a vehicle with broken taillights on November 6, 2023 and were surprised to see a 16-year-old boy in the driver’s seat and an intoxicated adult female in the passenger seat.

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

According to the 16-year-old, Lawson picked the boy up from home around 11 p.m. that evening without his parents’ knowledge and took him back to their house. The boy said she gave him marijuana to smoke while she drank alcohol, and then the two “engaged in sexual acts together,” Assistant Attorney General Madison Allen said.

According to a report by Lawson called the boy’s parents and told them he was at their house drinking alcohol, but did not mention marijuana or sex Eastern Idaho News.

Lawson accepted a plea deal to sexual battery and charges of aggravated rape of a minor, delivery of a controlled substance and delivery of alcohol to a minor were dropped.

Lawson was sentenced Thursday to two to 20 years in prison and must undergo sex offender treatment and register as a sex offender.

The 16-year-old’s parents are extremely upset about the situation, especially since they had adopted the boy just a few days before the incident.

“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 teen’s father said loudly East Idaho News. “My son will take a long time to heal and he doesn’t even know what wounds he has yet.”