Former Maryland High School Teacher Pleads Guilty After Video Leaks of Her Having Sex With Student

The teacher, Ekatherine Pappas, claims she didn't know she was being recorded.

Ekatherine Pappas mugshot.
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Ekatherine Pappas mugshot.

Ekatherine Pappas, a former Spanish teacher at Franklin High in Reisterstown, Maryland, has plead guilty to three counts of fourth-degree sex offense in Baltimore County Circuit Court last month after a video of her having sex with a male student made the rounds.

After a school resource officer at Franklin High became aware of the video, the Police Department's Crimes Against Children Unit was notified. When charges against Pappas, 25, were announced, she fled the country in early January. A state investigation revealed that the teacher, who had been working for the school for only a few weeks at the time the video was made, bought a ticket and flew to Bogota, Colombia. 

The same day she left the U.S., the student was interviewed by police and an arrest warrant for Pappas was obtained. When she returned a few weeks later, Pappas was arrested at the airport. The victim, who was 16 years old at the time, informed authorities that she told him on two different occasions in December to leave during school hours, and then they drove to his home. It was during one of these encounters that the recording took place. Pappas's attorney Craig M. Kadish claims she was unaware that she was being recorded. 

The student's father submitted the following statement to the court in response to this entire situation. "I cannot begin to explain the terror of being notified that my son had been sexually abused and it was on videotape that had been circulated throughout the school for others to see," he said, per the Baltimore Sun. "As a young man, this entire ordeal has been extremely confusing for him, just as it would be for any victim that is exposed to sexual activity before they are at a level of maturity. Our home is no longer viewed as a safe environment, since it is the location where the assault took place."

Pappas has been sentenced to three years in prison, as well as five years of "specialized and enhanced supervised probation for sexual offenders." She will also be required to register as a sex offender for 15 years. 

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