Fourth-grade teacher charged with raping 12-year-old boy in Tennessee

Alissa McCommon was arrested outside her home Friday local time by the Covington Police Department, the New York Post reports, and booked into the TipTon County Jail.

The mother-of-two has been accused of sexually assaulting a former student in 2021 in her home, Covington Police Chief Donna Turner said.

The 38-year-old teacher at Charger Academy admitted to inappropriately communicating with students, the police said.

McCommon was suspended without pay on August 24 after a parent came forward with the allegation, according to WREG.

After the parent came forward, several other students claimed McCommon befriended them online and even played video games with them, the outlet reported.

She allegedly sent students inappropriate photos and requested to have sex with them.

“It is unbearable. It’s unspeakable and it’s 100 per cent preventable. I think that’s why the detectives and we are so passionate about making sure victims are okay,” Chief Turner said, according to WREG.

McCommon, who is being held on a $US25,000 ($39,166) bond, maintains her innocence.

“We believe that it’s borderline a witch hunt on social media and that’s frustrating to us,” McCommon’s defence lawyer, Jere Mason, said, according to WREG.

The investigation is ongoing as police continue to interview the alleged victims.

Parents believe the teacher should have been arrested after she was suspended from school.

“Now y’all want to make matters of it. You should have done that in the beginning of time when you first found out about it,” Bianca Taylor, who has a child in McCommon’s class, said in a Facebook group, according to Fox 13 Memphis.

McCommon is expected to appear in court on October 13.

This article originally appeared on the New York Post and was reproduced with permission