Female teacher blames school for her ‘having sex with 17-year-old student’ in cover-up claims
Mary Beth Haglin, 24, claimed authorities 'turned a blind-eye' after she was arrested for her relationship with pupil in Iwoa
A FEMALE teacher accused of sleeping with a pupil has blamed school administrators for "turning a blind eye" and is calling it an "internal cover up"
Mary Beth Haglin, 24, claimed authorities "allowed this to happen" after she was arrested for her relationship with a 17-year-old boy at Washington High in Iowa.
The former substitute told a local paper that the school needed to take a share of the blame, claiming they knew about the matter since February but ignored it to "protect themselves from the limelight".
Cops in Iowa say the teacher will appear in court next month accused of sexual exploitation of a minor.
Haglin allegedly first had sex with the student in October 2015 and was reported to have continued to sleep with him throughout the year.
After she was released from custody at Linn County Jail, Haglin spoke out about the accusations during an interview with CBS 2 News - where she insisted the school knew about the relationship long before they reported it to the authorities
While she said she appreciates her role and understands she made a mistake, she told the station the school dropped the ball too.
Haglin told them that even though the school said they were investigating, she was still assigned to other Cedar Rapids schools as a substitute.
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In school records, seen by the news station, it showed that after she was released from Washington High in mid-May, she was re-assigned to work at Harrison Elementary, Oak Ridge and Prairie Creek intermediate.
While authorities say this was down to a miscommunication, Haglin says it was more like an intentional cover up.
She said: "From April 17 to May 17, they knew and certainly probably longer than that, probably since February when they first questioned me."
"I am not shying away from this," she added.
"I am not running away from this. I am facing this head-on."
Haglin's also blamed her past, saying: "Previous abusive relationships led me into this.
"The environment the school put me in didn't help to curb anything."
She added: "These people all knew what was going on, but they turned a blind eye because they wanted to protect their school and didn't want it to get into the limelight.
"They allowed this to happen. They knew in February."