Teacher who paid cash for sex with students sentenced

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A disgraced former substitute teacher in Missouri has been handed a 10-year prison sentence after the 31-year-old was accused of giving students cash, booze and drugs in exchange for sex.

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Carissa Jane Smith, of Dixon, Mo., was arrested in November 2024 on 19 counts including statutory rape and sexual contact with a student, the Pulaski County Sheriff’s Office said at the time.

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Smith pleaded guilty in September to lesser charges of one count of endangering the welfare of a child and two counts of sexual contact with a student, KRCGTV reported.

Smith was employed in the Dixon School District as a paraprofessional and long-term substitute, the district said in a statement following her arrest last year.

Resigned in 2024

She resigned in August 2024.

The teacher was accused of offering students money, marijuana and alcohol in return for sex or to allow her to perform oral sex, the sheriff’s office said in a probable cause statement.

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She would allegedly meet with the victims at isolated places or while her husband was at work.

On numerous occasions, Smith allegedly paid victims at least $100 to have sex or perform sexual acts with her.

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Victims said they met at teacher’s home, on side roads

Victims told investigators that the teacher would have sex with them at her home or other locations “such as gravel roads or on the side of the road,” the sheriff’s office said. One victim said Smith asked him to have sex with her when he was in middle school.

The victims told investigators that Smith told them not to tell anyone about their encounters to keep her from getting in trouble.

According to one victim, Smith’s husband threatened them with a baseball bat after she told him they were trying to blackmail her with a video of her smoking marijuana with students, USA Today reported, citing the probable cause statement.

Smith’s sentence includes six years in the Missouri Department of Corrections for the charge of endangering the welfare of a child and two years each for the sexual contact charges.

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