Drama teacher involved with student

A drama teacher in Barry County has been charged with statutory rape after allegedly having sexual intercourse with a 16-year-old student in the high school's "little theater" room.

Chelsie Leroy, 23, of Washburn, was recently charged with four felonies, including two counts of second-degree statutory rape and two counts of sexual contact with a student by a teacher.

The school year started Aug. 9 and the student told the detective he first received a text message from Leroy "two to three weeks after the first day of school," according to court documents used to charge Leroy.

In mid-September, a week or so after the first text, the student and Leroy kissed. The next week, they kissed again and that led to a sexual encounter Sept. 20 in the "little theater" room at the high school, according to court documents.

The student told investigators the two had sexual intercourse a second time, a week later, in the same room.

Court documents referred to Leroy as a "substitute teacher with extra duties as a drama teacher."

“This is technically still my student teaching,” Leroy said in the Dec. 12 story. “Through that, I’ve had to be observed by my university as well as my cooperating teacher.”

In the story, Leroy said she encountered resistance when she took over for the district's longtime drama teacher, Wyatt Hester, who asked her to apply for the job.

“There were parents and students worried," Leroy told the Barry County Advertiser. “I had students that wanted to drop the class when they found out that Mr. Hester wasn't going to be returning, Thankfully, once the year got started, everyone saw that I was continuing the work Mr. Hester had been doing.”

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