Teacher charged with sexually assaulting teen during coronavirus lockdown

A Pennsylvania high school teacher has been charged with sexually assaulting a teen student in a school classroom during the coronavirus lockdown, prosecutors said.

Stephen Eric Raught, a 53-year-old social studies teacher and baseball coach at Owen J. Roberts High School in South Coventry Township, allegedly hugged and kissed a 17-year-old student in his classroom when she went to the school on March 16 to pick up some of her belongings, according to the Chester County District Attorney’s Office.

Raught then took the girl to a spot in the classroom “out of view from the door” where the pair engaged in sex acts, prosecutors allege.

“I really wish I could take you home with me,” Raught allegedly told the girl at one point. “But we both know that would be very bad and I wouldn’t be able to help myself.”

Raught also referenced the ongoing COVID-19 outbreak during the assault, prosecutors said.

“Too bad we have quarantine, or else you’d be in my classroom every day after school,” Raught allegedly told her. “But I’d be late to baseball practice every day and chances are someone would walk in and see something.”

Video surveillance footage from the school shows Raught and the female victim together, prosecutors said.

“A teacher who violates his duty of care and protection of a minor will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law,” Chester County District Attorney Deb Ryan said in a statement. “We expect our children to be safe at school.”

Raught, of Reading, was arrested on May 7 on charges including institutional sexual assault and endangering the welfare of children. He has been placed on administrative leave, Ryan said.

The accusations were reported to Pennsylvania State Police in late March via a tip line. March 16 was the first day all Pennsylvania schools were closed due to COVID-19, CBS Philly reports.

Raught, an 18-year veteran at the school, was put on leave the same day district officials learned of an investigation into the allegations, which Superintendent Susan Lloyd characterized as “disturbing,” the Philadelphia Inquirer reports.

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