Guilty! Meredith Claire Powell, Tacoma, Washington (arrested Feb 2014)

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Meredith Claire Powell, 24, math teacher at Lincoln High School, Tacoma Public Schools, Tacoma, Washington, "suspicion of child rape and communicating with a minor for immoral purposes"

KIRO: Local teacher accused of sexual contact with her students (Feb 6 2014)

Tacoma schools spokesman Dan Voelpel said the district received an anonymous tip about allegations of sexual activity with students at Lincoln High on Tuesday and immediately passed that information along to the Tacoma Police Department. Powell was placed on paid leave according to Voelpel. He said when the district learned Powell had been arrested she was placed on unpaid leave ... She is expected to be arraigned in Pierce County Superior court on Friday on two counts of third-degree child rape and one count of communicating with a minor for immoral purposes.​

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News Tribune: Lincoln High School teacher arrested on suspicion of rape (Feb 6 2014)

Tacoma Police arrested a Lincoln High School teacher Thursday who is accused of having sex with students, school district officials said. The woman, who began teaching in Tacoma in 2012, was held Thursday in the Pierce County Jail on suspicion of two counts of third-degree child rape and one count of communicating with a minor for immoral purposes ... Police spokeswoman Loretta Cool said the teacher was arrested based on a report police received several days earlier; she said she didn't know the source of the report. She said the teacher was taken to a police station and interviewed, and that she was taken to jail from there. ​

Seattle Times: Tacoma high-school teacher accused of sex with student (Feb 6 2014)

 

KOMO: Tacoma math teacher accused of having sexual contact with students (Feb 6 2014)

Meredith Powell was booked into the Pierce County Jail for investigation of two counts of third-degree child rape and one count of communication with a minor for immoral purposes. "We received an anonymous tip on Tuesday and immediately provided that information to the police department," said Dan Voelpel, spokesperson for the Tacoma School District ... Voelpel says Powell was placed on paid administrative leave Wednesday, then transferred to unpaid leave after her arrest on Thursday.​

KBOI 2: Wash. math teacher accused of having sexual contact with students (Feb 7 2014)

 

Sky Valley Chronicle: Tacoma Teacher Arrested On suspicion of child rape (Feb 7 2014)

According to Tacoma School District officials Meredith Claire Powell, a math teacher at Lincoln High School was placed on leave Wednesday following her arrest on two counts of child rape and one count of communicating with a minor for immoral purposes. The arrest follows an anonymous tip delivered to school district offcials that Powell was involved in sexual activity with students and that information was handed over to Tacoma police who made the arrest.​

 

New York Daily News: Washington math teacher, 24, accused of having sex with students (Feb 7 2014)

Meredith Claire Powell, 24, was detained after bosses at Lincoln High School in Tacoma received an anonymous tip about allegations of sexual activity with pupils. The information was passed to Tacoma Police Department.​

 

Herald Net: Tacoma teacher accused of sex with students (Feb 6 2014)

The News-Tribune said the Lincoln High School teacher was arrested Thursday and booked into jail for investigation of third-degree child rape and communicating with a minor for immoral purposes ... KIRO-TV identified the teacher as Meredith Claire Powell, 24 ... School district spokesman Dan Voelpel said Lincoln officials received an anonymous tip Tuesday and notified police. He said the teacher was removed from the payroll after her arrest ... Police spokeswoman Loretta Cool said police interviewed the woman and then took her to jail.​

Trib Town: Tacoma, Wash., teacher arrested, accused of having sex with students (Feb 6 2014)

San Francisco Chronicle: Tacoma teacher accused of sex with students (Feb 6 2014)

 

KING 5: Tacoma teacher arrested for suspicion of child rape (Feb 6 2014)

District spokesman Dan Voelpel said administrators got an anonymous tip that Powell was involved in sexual activity with students. That information was immediately passed on to Tacoma police, who arrested [Meredith] Powell on suspicion of two counts of child rape and one count of communicating with a minor for immoral purposes. ​

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All teachers are required to go through "Boundary Invasion" training when hired, Voelpel said. The practice started several years ago after the case of Jennifer Rice, a McKiinley Elementary School teacher later convicted of kidnapping and raping a 10-year-old student. "(Powell) did go through that trainng," said Voelpel, "So the boundaries were very clear.​

KHOU: Tacoma teacher arrested for suspicion of child rape (Feb 7 2014)

 

King 5: Tacoma teacher charged with having sex with students (Feb 7 2014)

A Tacoma math teacher has admitted to sending nude pictures of herself to three male students and performing sex acts with two of them in a classroom, according to newly released court documents ... The alleged abuse started New Year’s Eve, when detectives say [Meredith] Powell exchanged phone numbers with three male students. Two are current students, one is a former student. According to court documents, weeks later Powell was drunk one night when one of the students sent her a text message, saying “she turned him on.” Powell responded, saying she thought he was hot. The flirtation eventually escalated. After her arrest, Powell admitted to kissing, fondling and performing oral sex on one of the teens in her classroom, and kissing and fondling another one on campus after a school assembly. A third student told police Powell sent naked Snapchat pictures of herself in a bathtub to him. Investigators say he sensed his teacher wanted to have sex with him, but it stopped there when the student’s girlfriend sensed “something fishy.”​

 

News Tribune: Lincoln High teacher charged with rape of students (Feb 7 2014)

The court papers contain allegations of naked bathtub photos, suggestive text messages and furtive kisses -- along with sexual acts in a locked classroom. Those are among the accusations leveled against Meredith Powell, a 24-year-old Lincoln math teacher who pleaded not guilty Friday to two counts of third-degree child rape and one count of communication with a minor for immoral purposes. Powell was charged as a result of alleged incidents that took place with three male students who attend the Tacoma school. Tacoma police began investigating this week after learning that Powell wrote a letter to one boy’s girlfriend apologizing for “promiscuous” and “unprofessional” drunken text messages she exchanged with one of the boys. The teens were ages 15 to 17 when the incidents occurred last month, according to court documents.​

 

Seattle Times: Tacoma high-school teacher charged with child rape (Feb 7 2014)

In late January, [Meredith] Powell allegedly exchanged explicit text messages with two 15-year-old male students and engaged in sexual acts with both students in a classroom, according to charging documents. She also allegedly sent sexual text messages, including one containing her address, to a 17-year-old boy. Police say Powell wrote to the 17-year-old’s girlfriend apologizing for “promiscuous” and “unprofessional” comments and texts she had sent.​

 

San Francisco Chronicle: Charged: teacher accused of sex with students (Feb 7 2014)

Prosecutor Mark Lindquist alleges that on A few days later, [Meredith] Powell is accused of performing oral sex on another victim. Prosecutors allege Powell exchanged explicit text messages with the victims and sent one a photo of her naked in a bathtub. The News Tribune reports the teens are 16 and 17 years old.​

 

KREM: UI graduate charged with having sex with students (Feb 7 2014)

Meredith Powell, a 24-year-old teacher at Lincoln High School, was charged with child rape and immoral communication with a minor and has been placed on unpaid leave. KREM 2 News confirmed that Powell graduated from the University of Idaho. ​

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The alleged abuse started New Year’s Eve, when detectives say Powell exchanged phone numbers with three male students. Two are current students, one is a former student. According to court documents, weeks later Powell was drunk one night when one of the students sent her a text message, saying “she turned him on.” Powell responded, saying she thought he was hot. The flirtation eventually escalated. After her arrest, Powell admitted to kissing, fondling and performing oral sex on one of the teens in her classroom, and kissing and fondling another one on campus after a school assembly. A third student told police Powell sent naked Snapchat pictures of herself in a bathtub to him. Investigators say he sensed his teacher wanted to have sex with him, but it stopped there when the student’s girlfriend sensed “something fishy.”​

 

Sky Valley Chronicle: Students Rally Around Tacoma Teacher Charged with Having Sex with Students (Feb 8 2014)

Some students at Lincoln High School in Tacoma have rallied around a young teacher there who is charged with having sex and other inappropriate contact with students ... Some students at the school do not believe Powell did anything inappropriate and have launched a Facebook in support of the teacher.​

 

Penninsula Daily News: Teacher, Sequim native, accused of sex acts with her students in Tacoma (Feb 9 2014)

A Sequim High School graduate and former Sequim substitute teacher has been charged with the third-degree rape of two her high school students in Tacoma as well as sexual conversation with a former student, and ordered to return to her hometown. Meredith Claire Powell, 24, pleaded not guilty Friday in Pierce County Superior Court to the rape charges and to one count of communicating with a minor for immoral purposes after her arrest Thursday in Tacoma. The students were between 14 and 16 years old, Superior Court records say.​