Serena Cator (McLoud Police Department) copy
A 43-year-old high school teacher in Oklahoma was arrested earlier this month and charged with multiple felonies for allegedly using social media apps to stalk, groom, and solicit sex from several minor students.
Serena Cator, a home economics teacher at McLoud High School, was taken into custody on March 16 and charged with three counts of soliciting sexual conduct with minors by use of technology, court records reviewed by Law&Crime show. McLoud is located about 26 miles east of Oklahoma City.
According to an affidavit of probable cause obtained by Oklahoma City NBC affiliate KFOR-TV, Cator allegedly had inappropriate sexual conversations with at least 10 male students between the ages of 14 and 18, sending and requesting nude photographs from at least three of the victims.
Additionally, Cator reportedly told investigators that two of the victims had previously dated her teenage daughter.
McLoud Public Schools began investigating Cator in November 2022, after a parent came forward and reported that her daughter told her Cator was having sex with several of her classmates, Oklahoma City Fox affiliate KOKH reported. In a subsequent interview with the school district, Cator reportedly signed a statement attesting to the fact that she “willingly admitted she has been sending and receiving lewd and indecent messages and pictures from several of her male students.”
Cator told school administrators that she believed she had a mental illness that caused her to have difficulty separating her dreams from reality and that she had been drinking “way too much” and knew she needed help, KFOR reported. She reportedly provided administrators with a written list of 10 victims who were students at the school. Cator was terminated from her teaching position in December 2022.
The investigation and documentation were turned over to the McLoud Police Department.
Investigators said that Cator essentially repeated the same process with all of her victims by first approaching them in person at school before messaging them using various social media apps, particularly Snapchat, the affidavit reportedly says.
KFOR reported that Cator also established personal relationships with the mothers of the victims she is accused of “stalking.” She allegedly developed such bonds by sending the parents photographs of their children in class or participating in sporting events.
“[Cator] told the parents how great each of the boys were doing,” the affidavit reportedly states.
Following her arrest, police say that Cator retained an attorney and refused to answer any questions regarding the allegations of illegal sexual activity.
Investigators then began interviewing students and Cator’s alleged victims, at least one of whom exchanged nude photos with Cator and claimed that she attempted to set up a meeting so they could have oral sex, per KFOR.
The parents of the alleged victims reportedly told police that they were aware that Cator’s conduct was out of the ordinary, but said they were not as wary of her behavior because she was a female teacher speaking to male students, not a male teacher messaging female students.
“Serena Cator is a predator, a stalker and a pedophile, stalking young boys from the age of 14 and up. Most of the young victims said they found the situation extremely weird and cut off correspondence before they got lured to Snapchat or just after,” the affidavit reportedly states. “Most of the parents felt uneasy about the constant texts and pictures from class and from sporting events, where Cator was bragging on the students. All the parents said if it had been their daughter and a male teacher they would have been alarmed but each said they pushed down the ‘weirdness’ of it because it was their sons and a female teacher, who they ‘thought’ they knew.”
McLoud Chief of Police Kyle Webb told KOKH that the gender of the sexual predator should not be an issue for such unlawful conduct.
“I think one thing that people need to understand is it’s not always a male predator and a female victim,” Webb reportedly told the station, “I think sometimes that people look at that differently, maybe they fly under the radar a little bit because they’re not used to it.”
Cator was released from the Pottawatomie County Detention Center after posting $15,000 bond, court documents show. Court records do not indicate whether she has officially retained an attorney to defend her against the sexual misconduct allegations.
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