An award winning teacher from Arkansas has been jailed after she admitted to having a sexual relationship with a student.
Leah Queen, 44, pleaded guilty earlier this week to sexual assault having previously pled not guilty.
Queen, who hails from Oklahoma, was a physical education teacher at Gentry Intermediate School in Gentry, near Fayetteville.
The assault occurred 13 years ago in 2010 when the high school student was 17 and Queen was 31.
Although the age of consent in Arkansas is 16, teachers are only allowed to have sexual relationships with students once they are 18-years-old.
The former student detailed in court documents how sexual contact between them started in the summer of 2010.
A teacher from Arkansas, Leah Queen, 44, has been sentenced to 58 days in jail after confessing to engaging in a sexual relationship with a student
Queen, who was a PE teacher, pleaded guilty to sexual assault earlier this week, although the relationship with the student occurred 13 years ago in 2010
In 2019 she was given a Golden Apple Award having been nominated by one of her students to local television station KNWA
The affidavit stated how Queen and the victim went on to ‘engage in deviant sexual activity’ before the minor’s senior year of high school.
She had been on a camping trip when she kissed the victim. A journal from the student also detailed various other instances of intimacy between the pair.
Queen had sex with the student in her office, her office bathroom at the school and even at home, according to an affidavit.
Parents of the student, Queen’s ex-husband and another former school teacher all corroborated several details of the student’s accusations.
Queen, who had been teaching grades 3-5 at the time of her arrest, had been a teacher in the Gentry School District for more than 20 years,
Queen had also undergone a huge transformation when it came to her weight
Queen was a PE teacher and embraced the role losing half her her bodyweight over 10 years
It is a huge fall from grace for the former teacher who in 2022 was made ‘Teacher of the Year’ at her school
An affidavit told hows Queen befriended the victim after a basketball game and then the pair began socializing outside of school hours.
Queen’s ex also reported seeing the victim sharing a bed with his ex-wife on several occasions.
Benton County Circuit Judge Brad Karren placed Queen on six years of state-supervised probation and sentenced her to 58 days in Benton County Jail.
She has also been ordered not to have any contact with the victim.
Queen, who had been teaching grades 3-5 at the time of her arrest had been a teacher in the Gentry School District for more than 20 years, and had initially pleaded not guilty but later changed her plea.
Queen initially pleaded not guilty but changed her plea to guilty
Queen was a PE teacher and embraced the role losing half her her bodyweight over 11 years
Queen is pictured with a current boyfriend who regularly features in her posts to social media
Queen will never be allowed to step foot in a classroom again. She is also required to register as a sex offender and must complete a sex offender treatment program
She also agreed to never be employed as a teacher again as part of the plea agreement.
Queen is required to register as a sex offender and must complete a sex offender treatment program.
Queen had undergone a huge transformation in recent years as she embraced her role as a PE teacher shedding hundreds of pounds in weight dropping from 300lbs to 165lbs over the course of decade.
It is a huge fall from grace for the former teacher who in 2022 was made ‘Teacher of the Year’ at her school and who in 2019 was given a Golden Apple Award having been nominated by one of her young students to local television station KNWA.
‘When i was a girl in the second grade, I had a teacher who did not make feel like I was very much. I just wanted to love my babies. I have a passion and drive for this and they love me back,’ Queen told the station while accepting her award.
