ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH

Jefferson County

Former teacher pleads guilty of sex with student
By Robert Kelly

03/06/2008

  • HILLSBORO — A former substitute teacher in the Dunklin School District in Jefferson County will be sentenced next month after pleading guilty of having sex with a 14-year-old student.

    Teresa Engelbach, 22, of Pevely, pleaded guilty last week to one felony count of second-degree statutory rape and one misdemeanor count of sexual misconduct. She could get up to 7 years in prison and a fine of up to $5,000 on the rape charge, and up to 6 months in prison and a fine of up to $500 on the sexual misconduct charge.

    Jefferson County Circuit Judge M. Edward Williams set sentencing for April 15.

    The charges against Engelbach were filed last March after the student, then in the eighth grade, reported to a teacher that he had had sex with Engelbach, a substitute teacher at Senn-Thomas Middle School in Herculaneum. The teacher told school administrators, who called police.


    The incidents took place last year between Feb. 1 and March 13 in several areas of Jefferson County and did not involve other students, police said.

    Engelbach had a substitute teaching certificate from the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, which requires a fingerprint background check through the Missouri Highway Patrol and FBI. Those checks came back clear, Dunklin Superintendent Stan Stratton has said.

    Stratton said Wednesday that Engelbach had not taught in the district since she was charged.

    Her attorney, Daris Almond Jr., was unavailable Wednesday for comment.

    Stratton said Engelbach also formerly taught at the district's high school and elementary school. She began working for the district, which has 1,350 students, in September 2006.

    Jim Morris, a spokesman for the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, said Engelbach did not renew her substitute teaching certificate for the 2007-2008 school year.


rkelly@post-dispatch.com | 636-500-4109