A middle school teacher from Kentucky has been charged with raping a 13-year-old female student. Barren County Middle School teacher William Kyle Gardner, 27, was arrested on Saturday for counts of second-degree rape, first-degree sexual abuse and tampering with evidence. Gardner is accused of sexually assaulting the minor victim five times.

After committing this horrific crime, Gardner attempted to cover it up. He reportedly confessed to blocking his student on the social media app SnapChat. The reasoning behind the blocking was of his fear of anyone finding out about them. 

The 13 year old victim was interviewed at the Child Advocacy Center. She confirmed that there was sexual contact with her 8th-grade social studies teacher, William Gardner. 

Gardner is now being held in Barren County Jail on $75,000 bail. Gardner will be back in court for this case on November 7th.

Barren County Schools responded to this event on Facebook: “Barren County Schools takes all allegations of sexual misconduct extremely seriously and is fully cooperating with law enforcement at this time. The school district will continue to closely monitor the situation and will take all appropriate actions necessary to protect our students.”

Barren County Schools faced a similar situation in May. Randall Hastedt, a bus driver for the school system, was charged after offering money to a female student to show her breasts.

by Emilie Chi