Missouri Teacher, 23 Who Married Her Student Lover, 19 To Avoid Jail Now Has A Baby With Him

Baylee A. Turner, the former Missouri high school teacher who was charged for having sex with her student has the charges against her dropped after she married him and gave birth to their child.  

Prosecutors were forced to have the charges dropped against the teacher after she married the student she was accused of having sex with.

Two years back in February 2019, Turner - who was then 23 - was charged with having sexual contact with one of her male students following an investigation by the Jasper County Sheriff's Department, the Joplin Globe reported.  

The former Sarcoxie High School teacher was a first-year English teacher at the high school when an investigation revealed that she had sexual relations with the student - then aged 18 - leading to her resignation.   

Both the student and the teacher admitted that they had sex the week of January 14-21 in 2019 at Turner's home in Sarcoxie, about 260 miles southwest of St. Louis, court documents show.

Now Facebook reveals Turner and the student married in May 2019 several months after the scandal and then welcomed their first child in February 2020. Turner's student-turned-husband is now 22 years old.

Assistant prosecutor Nate Dally told the Globe that there was no point in the charges after Turner got married to the student. 

Dally also said that the student now has marital or spousal privilege as per the law and he can no longer be compelled to testify against his wife, weakening the state's case in court.

Missouri state law prohibits school employees, volunteers, or officials from having sexual contact with a student regardless of consent or age. 

Reportedly, Turner taught English at the Sarcoxie middle school for two years before being assigned to teach high school sophomores and seniors in 2019.  

After getting arrested in 2019, she resigned from her teaching job.

Jasper County Sheriff's Department

Turner faced 4 years prison charge and the court passed an order that prohibited her from contacting anyone younger than 16 when she was released after posting a $10,000 bond. 

Dally also stated that Turner has surrendered her state teaching license, which was one of the prosecutors' main goals.  

The Globe reported that Turner was one of six young educators in the state that have been accused of having sex with students in recent years.

The case resembles the famous old case between Washington state teacher Mary Kay Letourneau and sixth-grade student Vili Fualaau.  

Letourneau met Fualaau after he joined the second-grade class in 1992 and they didn't begin their sexual relationship until four years later when he was 12-years old. 

In 1997, Letourneau made international headlines when the then-34-year-old pleaded guilty to raping Vili when he was 12-years-old. She was reportedly pregnant with her former student's child at the time of her conviction.

Letourneau was then paroled in 1998 but was once again found having sex with Fualaau in a car. After this, the judge revoked her prior plea agreement and she was ordered to serve 7 years prison time on charges of second-degree child rape charges for violating the no-contact order. 

She reportedly gave birth to her second child with Fualaau while in prison. He was 14-years-old at the time. The couple then got married in 2005 and raised their two kids together before Fualaau filed for separation in 2017.

Letourneau died of colon cancer in 2020 at the age of 58.