A Missouri education teacher has pleaded guilty after sending sexually explicit content to a 16-year-old student, which spared her jail time.
According KOMU 8, 26-year-old Rikki Lynn Laughlin sent nude photos to a teen over Snapchat in 2023, along with a video containing herself engaging in a sexual act.
On Thursday, Laughlin pleaded guilty in Grundy County to first-degree endangering the welfare of a child with no sexual conduct. She was subsequently sentenced to five years of probation.
Laughlin, who met the student while she taught at St. James High School in St. James, was charged in October 2023, for incidents that happened in both September and October of that year.
The student reportedly told police that things began to escalate quickly between him and Laughlin and that she kissed him inside a classroom, ABC 13 reports.
She allegedly pressured him into having sex, but the victim told police that he “made excuses” and “did not feel comfortable,” a Maries County Sheriff’s Office probable cause stated.
She also asked him to send nude photos of himself, and later confirmed that she received them.
The victim said that during the investigation, Laughlin asked him to delete the material, told him she could jail time and said people at school had been talking about them.
The student turned over two videos and photo that Laughlin sent him to police.
Laughlin initially denied the allegations, but later admitted she communicated with him on Snapchat. When investigators searched her phone, they found three incriminating videos.
Prior to the plea, prosecutors had charged Laughlin with:
- Statutory rape
- Tamper or attempting to tamper with a victim in a felony prosecution
- Child pornography possession
- Sexual exploitation of a minor
- Sexual trafficking of a child
- Tampering with physical evidence in a felony prosecution
[Feature Photo via Maries County Sheriff’s Office]
