A Missouri teacher has been charged with statutory rape for allegedly having sex with a 16-year-old student while other students were “lookouts,” according to multiple reports.
Hailey Clifton-Carmack, 26, was a math teacher at Laquey High School. On Friday, she was arrested in Garden Ridge, Texas, as she was “suspected of fleeing the State of Missouri” to avoid arrest warrants, the Garden Ridge Police Department reported.
According to the New York Post, the allegations involving Clifton-Carmack began on Dec. 7, 2023, when a student reported to the school’s resource officer that the teacher was having an illicit relationship with a student. The staffer then contacted the Pulaski County Sheriff’s Department (via NYP):
The witness then met with law enforcement officials, to whom he showed photographs of his classmate with scratches on his back.
The witness alleged that the “scratches were from Hailey after the confidential victim had sex with her” in the “driveway” of the witness’s home.
The witness also claimed the math teacher had been in trouble with school administrators in the past for “being too close with students.”
Clifton-Carmack — a recently divorced mother of two — would often wear “tight or low-cut shirts” to show off her “headlights” and “tight leggings that ‘showed off her camel toe,’” according to court documents.
On Dec. 8, detectives confronted Clifton-Carmack, and she denied having any sexual relationships with students. Police were granted a warrant to access her cell phone, which showed that she was having a relationship with a student (via NYP):
After a warrant was issued to access the phone on Dec. 22, police found text messages that showed an alleged relationship was going on between the 16-year-old student and the educator, according to court documents.
Clifton-Carmack left Missouri to visit family in Texas around Dec. 23.
Police interviewed “individuals living at the residence that Hailey was previously living at” in Missouri on Jan. 3, 2024, who shared that she had “moved to Texas to live with her family down there” and “were not sure if she was going to return.”
The school district’s superintendent, Kent Stoumbaugh, told local outlet ABC 17 that Clifton-Carmack has not been on school grounds since her allegations came out.
“The alleged misconduct is inexcusable and does not meet the professional standards for district employees. The district took immediate action once we were aware of this situation,” Stoumbaugh wrote.
“The employee has not been in the district since December 8, 2023, and we do not anticipate her return.”
Recently, charges were brought against the student’s father, who allegedly told others that he was knowledgeable about his son’s relationship with his teacher. The father, Mark Creighton, was arrested on charges of endangering the welfare of a child (via NYP):
The father also allegedly shared he knew that his son and the math teacher used other students as “lookouts” to have sex during school hours.
Creighton “knew of the relationship of his minor child and the 26-year-old teacher, and instead of reporting the information, he continued to cover for them and allowed the relationship to continue” and “even allowed Hailey to come over to his residence and see the victim while he was present,” according to prosecutors.
When the witness told Creighton they would come forward with the information, he responded by telling them that his son and Clifton-Carmack “are going to do it behind my back, so I may as well let it happen.”