A Missouri high school math teacher has been arrested in Texas, after fleeing the state amid accusations of engaging in a sexual relationship with a teen student.
Police arrested 26-year-old Hailey Nichelle Clifton-Carmack last week while she visited family near San Antonio, according to the Garden Ridge Police Department. She was wanted out of Laquey, Missouri, on charges of child molestation, statutory rape, endangering the welfare of a child, and sexual contact with a student.
Court documents indicate that the Pulaski County Sheriff’s Department received information from the Laquey High School resource officer regarding a student reporting a teacher-student sexual relationship; the teacher was identified as the defendant and the student as a 16-year-old male.
Clifton-Carmack allegedly fled Missouri and headed to Texas around December 23, 2023. By January 3, she still hadn’t returned home. Police subsequently arrested her without incident on January 5.
DailyMail reports that the defendant was identified after a student showed police some photographs of his classmate with scratches on his back. The student reportedly said the scratches resulted from an encounter with Clifton-Carmack and the victim.
Although Clifton-Carmack denied the allegations, a search warrant was obtained for her phone, according to police, showing text messages as evidence of an inappropriate relationship.
Meanwhile, the victim’s father, identified as Mark Creighton, has been arrested and charged after police say he knew about the relationship between the teacher and his son but did nothing to stop it. Creighton is also accused of allowing the defendant to see the victim at his home.
“Creighton knew of the relationship of his minor child and the 26-year-old teacher and instead of reporting the information, he continued to cover for them and allowed the relationship to continue’ and ‘even allowed Hailey to come over to his residence and see the victim while he was present,” court documents state, according to the New York Post.
Creighton is facing an endangering the welfare of a child charge. He’s being held behind bars on a $50,000 bond.
Clifton-Carmack’s bond was set at $250,000, according to court documents. She’s currently waiting for extradition from Comal County, Texas, back to Missouri.
[Feature Photo via Garden Ridge Police Department]
