A Cedar Rapids, Iowa school teacher says it’s not her fault she had sex with a student, insisting it’s the school officials fault, claiming they knew of the illegal activities and failed to stop her.
Mary Beth Haglin, 24, was arrested and charged with sexual exploitation of a minor for admittedly having an affair with a 17-year-old boy for much of the 2015-16 academic year. She was released from police custody on Saturday from the Linn County Jail.
Haglin contends that she made a mistake but also says the school is complicit as well for having known about the relationship long before they reported it.
“These people all knew what was going on, and yet they turned a blind eye because they wanted to protect their school. They didn’t want it to get into the limelight,” Haglin told KGAN-TV, adding that the first encounter with the boy was last October. “They allowed this to happen. They knew in February.”
According to CBS2, even though Haglin was being investigated by the school she was still assigned to other Cedar Rapids schools as a substitute.
CBS 2 News looked at school records — and 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 at the end of May.
The district told us on Friday that it was a miscommunication in the Grant Wood AEA substitute placement system but Haglin says it was intentional to try and cover it up.
“From April 17 to May 17, they knew and certainly probably longer than that, probably since February when they first questioned me,” Haglin said.
Haglin continued down this trail, telling the Cedar Rapids Gazette. “They didn’t ban me. They never actually said they were banning me from school grounds, they never said they were banning me from working at any other school, they never said they were banning me from thus-and-so many feet of any school. They never said any of that.”
“I do take responsibility,” Haglin told KCRG. “I’m not shying away from this. I’m facing this head on.”
The ex-teacher’s next court appearance is August 12th.
Interview with Haglin below:
