School principal accused of raping 16-year-old avoids jail
A teacher accused of raping a student has managed to avoid jail.
Elizabeth Giesler, 39, a former assistant principal was charged with sexual contact with a student, statutory sodomy and statutory rape of a 16-year-old boy in the US state of Missouri, The Kansas City Star reports.
The St Louis Post-Dispatch reported she was accused of performing a sex act on the teen and engaging in sexual intercourse with him twice in her home.
She was charged in May 2018 but this week was sentenced to two years’ probation after entering an Alford plea.
In the US, an Alford plea is an assertion of innocence by the defendant but an acceptance that the evidence shown in court would lead to guilt.
Giesler has also surrendered her teaching licence.
Sainte Genevieve County prosecutor Wayne Williams told the Daily Journal that the 39-year-old’s lack of a criminal history was taken into account.
Mr Williams added that her surrendering the teaching licence was part of accepting the plea.
“That was basically her livelihood, and she had to surrender that,” he said.
The boy’s father previously told Fox2 the family knew Giesler well and trusted her.
“She took advantage of him.”
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