A 23-year-old music teacher at Greenfield High School in Greenfield, Missouri has been arrested on allegations that she had a sexual relationship with a student.

Back on May 15th, Alison M. Peck was charged with two counts of statutory rape of a child under the age of 17.  These were followed up on May 18th with charges in a second county and she is now facing statutory rape and sodomy charges.

Reportedly the relationship with the student began in December 2008 via text messages that eventually evolved into sexting, and then became physical in January of this year.  The liaisons were said to have happened in two different counties, and the charges are for statutory rape in Dade County, and statutory rape and sodomy in Lawrence County.

Now, this is where the story takes an odd turn.  I originally passed on covering this story because I had done so many of these lately, and even though this happened in my own state, I showed restraint and passed over it, but then she was arrested again on May 22nd on completely new charges.

After the original charges were filed, Ms. Peck was instructed to have no contact with the student or his family.  On May 15th, two friends of Ms. Peck contacted the 16-year-old boy and arranged for him to meet with her at the American Inn in Springfield, MO for pizza.  The two friends picked up the boy and transported the boy to the arranged meeting spot.  After her friends left, Ms. Peck and the minor were reported to have spent the night at the hotel and engaged in sexual relations.

When authorities learned of the liaison, she was arrested again and charged with one count of statutory rape and her bond in that county was set at $200,000.  Under the new court orders she is to have no contact with the boy or his family, to remain 1,000 feet away from his home and school and to also have no contact with the two friends that assisted her with the May 15th meeting.  She was also ordered not to leave Missouri and had to surrender her passport to the authorities.

In a May 19th interview with KSPR, Ms. Peck’s lawyer, Bob Torp, said the following.

She’s going to cooperate.  We’re going to get to the bottom of this, investigate it.

I want people to understand that she’s a person. She’s not a monster. She’s innocent until proven guilty.

Torp said his client is “doing as well as can be expected. I think that, you know, there’s a certain amount of shock that comes with something like this. It’s just starting to sink in.”

This was of course four days after the reported meeting at the American Inn, and three days before she was arrested again.

UPDATED 06/04/09: Age corrected from 14-years-old to 16-years-old. At the time of the original posting he was being reported at the former, so that is what I went with.

This women now joins the roll call of teacher sex scandals for 2009!

• Christine McCallum, Boston, MA
• Lisa Lavoie, Holyoke, MA
• Christy Lynn Martin, St. Petersburg, FL
• Linda Nef and Valynne Bowers, Bountiful, UT
• Sarah L. Tolzien, Richton Park, IL
• Autumn Faulkner, Randolph County, WV
• Lindsay Massaro, Hackettstown, NJ
• Lauren Breslin, Vineland, NJ
• Kristina Anna Baeta, Union City, CA
• Raeanna Jewell, Apache Junction, AZ
• Jennifer Lea Burton, Orangefield, TX
• Tamara Hofmann, Chandler, AZ
• Jennifer Marie Collier, Jacksonville, FL
• Gina Marie Watring, Durham, NC
• Maria Guman Hernandez, Hialeah, FL