Substitute teacher accused of sexual contact with student takes plea offer

Jeff Lehr, The Joplin Globe, Mo.
·1 min read
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May 2—A former substitute teacher for the Golden City School District who was charged with having sex with a student has pleaded down to a misdemeanor offense. The plea deal requires that she surrender her teaching license.

Jacey B. Stahl, 23, also listed as Jacey Stahl Collins in court records, pleaded guilty Monday in Jasper County Circuit Court to a misdemeanor count of child endangerment.

She was sentenced to 90 days in jail, with execution of sentence suspended and the defendant placed on unsupervised probation for two years. Stahl had been facing a Class E felony count of sexual contact with a student that could have resulted in a sentence of up to four years in prison.

Prosecutor Theresa Kenney said Stahl will be required to surrender her license to teach in Missouri.

Stahl was arrested in December 2021 after a joint investigation by the sheriff's offices in the counties of Jasper and Barton. Golden City schools are located in Barton County, but the district also serves a portion of Jasper County.

The contact took place Feb. 24, 2021, in a bedroom of the boy's home in Jasper County while his parents were away, according to a probable-cause affidavit.

Stahl was employed by the school district as a full-time substitute teacher at the time. The age of the student involved is redacted on court records.

The affidavit states that she continued to communicate with him via text messages after the contact and later asked him, through another student, to destroy his cellphone, promising to buy him a new one.

But investigators with the Southwest Missouri Cyber Crimes Task Force obtained the phone and recovered communications between the boy and his teacher prior to her arrest.