[Warning: Potentially Triggering Content]
Leslie Buttram Gillespie, a teacher in Alabama, was found dead by suicide in her home on Saturday, just two days after she had been arrested for allegedly sexually abusing two male students. The woman was 44 years old.
The shocking death comes after Gillespie was charged with one count of second-degree rape, one count of second-degree sodomy, and two counts for being a school employee engaging in a sex act with a student under the age of 19. According to WAFF 48 and online police records, a student came forward with the allegations recently, telling investigators that he and another male student had been sexually abused by the educator in a classroom after school in September 2020. They were just 15 and 16 at the time.
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Prior to this arrest, Leslie had been working as the English teacher at R.A. Hubbard High School in North Courtland. In 2019, one year before the alleged abuse occurred, she was named the teacher of the year. Wow… So awful to hear that a faculty member once praised for her abilities in the classroom was secretly engaging in illegal and downright grotesque acts of sexual abuse with students after school.
In light of the horrific arrest, the teacher was promptly placed on administrative leave with the Lawrence County Schools Superintendent Jon Bret Smith telling parents in a statement:
“While the district cannot provide any specific details at this time, we want to emphasize that there is nothing more important to Lawrence County Schools than the safety and well-being of our students. The district will work diligently and expediently to resolve the situation.”
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We would hope! But as we’ve seen, so many educators around the country continue to be exposed for their wrongful ways…
While an investigation is still on-going, legal matters weren’t able to fully commence with Leslie before she died by suicide. The teacher was found dead in her Hillsboro home by police at 11:30 a.m. on Saturday morning. Authorities sent her body to the Department of Forensics in Huntsville for an autopsy, but declared her death was likely caused by a self-inflicted gunshot wound. Leslie was found just two days after being released from jail on a $60,000 bond Thursday.
Thinking of the young students involved in this case. It’s truly terrible to learn of alleged crimes such as these at the hands of a teacher…
[Image via Lawrence County Sheriff’s Office]
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