A married 45-year-old teacher from Nebraska was arrested for having sex with a 17-year-old student in a car. It has now come to light that the substitute teacher is the wife of a top American official in the Department of Defense. Though the age of consent is 16 in Nebraska, the female teacher has been booked on felony charges and faces 20 years in jail.
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The teacher, Erin Ward, was found naked in a car with the 17-year-old student, who attempted to flee the scene but crashed the car and ran away in his underwear.
Police received a report of a suspicious car parked on a dead-end road at around 3 am. They found 45-year-old Erin Ward and a 17-year-old boy in the backseat of a Honda sedan, according to the New York Post.
The boy, who was without clothes, hopped to the front seat and drove off but crashed a few blocks away and fled on foot.
Over an hour later, he was found nearby in only his underwear and a T-shirt.
Both Ward and the student were hospitalised for minor injuries from the crash.
Ward, a teacher, is reported to have confessed to having sex with the boy and was found to have an Omaha Public Schools ID, admitting to working as a substitute teacher at various schools, including Burke High School, where the boy was identified as a student.
The car in which the teacher and student were found belonged to the teacher’s husband, who is a top US official in the Department of Defence.
Her 53-year-old husband, William Douglas ‘Doug’ Ward, is a Deputy Director and Senior Advisor at the United States Strategic Command. He accused her of having sex with a student, according to the Daily Mail.
Doug graduated from Harvard Extension School in 2021 and has been with the Strategic Command since 2005, starting as a Deputy Branch Chief.
He and his wife live in Gretna, a city in Nebraska, with their three teenage children, one of whom is the same age as the student involved in the case.
Although Nebraska’s age of consent is 16, Ward faces a Class IIA felony charge, which carries a potential 20-year prison sentence, reported the Daily Mail.
The Douglas County Sheriff’s Office is collaborating with Omaha Public Schools during the investigation. Burke’s principal, Darren Rasmussen, informed the community about Ward’s arrest, emphasising student safety.
He stated that Ward, who worked at Burke High in the 2023-24 school year, would not return to any district schools. Counselling support will be provided for students needing assistance.
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