A former assistant principal has not only avoided jail but has also voluntarily surrendered her teacher’s license after being charged with sexual contact with a student, statutory sodomy and statutory rape in 2018.
Elizabeth Giesler was the assistant principal of Ste. Genievieve Middle school in eastern Missouri. The 38-year-old accepted a plea deal after being charged with raping a 16-year-old male student, “allowing her to assert innocence while acknowledging the evidence proves her guilt beyond reasonable doubt,” according to Yahoo News.
While the court documents, according to The Kansas City Star, do not show that Giesler admitted to guilt, the plea indicates that there was sufficient evidence to find guilt if the case were to be taken to trial. She pled guilty to second-degree harassment and giving up her four teaching certifications, the Daily Journal Online reports.
In addition to bypassing a jail sentence, Giesler reportedly agreed to serve two years probation. How ironic, as Black folks have been put behind bars for crimes they did not even commit, only to hopefully be exonerated years later.
The student, who has not been identified, informed the police of three separate sexual encounters that he had with the former assistant principal – one of which took place at her home where she performed oral sex on the minor. She also engaged in sexual intercourse twice with the 16-year-old, according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
The teen’s father said Giesler was a mentor to his son. “She talked to us about my son and stuff like this,” he told KTV1. “What she can do for him through life, you know, give him a better life. She was going to try to make sure he got on the right path.”
The former assistant principal had been placed on leave at the middle school, pending the results of the investigation.
Ste. Genevieve County Prosecuting Attorney Wayne Williams defended the plea offered to Giesler, stating that he took her clean record into consideration. Also, how she will be prohibited from working in schools after handing over her teacher’s license.
Williams said in a statement, “I also took into consideration in extending this recommendation on misdemeanor harassment that it was conditioned upon her giving up her teaching credentials…And part of my thinking on that was, ‘OK, I’m trying to help this victim and looking at helping other potential victims if she remained in her employment status.’ I think that it was a priority for me as a prosecuting attorney looking at other potential victims she might encounter.”
He added, “Some people might not understand the bargain that was struck in this case unless they really understand what she had to give up voluntarily to get that bargain. That was basically her livelihood, and she had to surrender that.”
Giesler was arrested and booked on the rape charges in May of 2018. She also posted a $20,000 bond that same day.
Sounds about white.
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