A former Buchtel High School teacher is accused of engaging in a three year sexual affair with a teenage boy she met when she was his eighth grade English teacher.
Laura Lynn Cross, 36, was indicted on three counts of sexual battery over a period beginning on August 1, 2013 through September 6, 2016.
The teen's father says he first raised concerns to both a Buchtel High School official and Tallmadge Police as early as 2012 when his son was a freshman--but no charges were filed.
Cross resigned her teaching position in January, 2015.
"First of all, she's a schoolteacher," said the teen's father. "To get aroused by a child basically you have to be a sick individual."
Even more disturbing, Cross convinced the teen's mother--who had custody--to allow the teen to move in with her in her Tallmadge home through a court approved "partial parental custody" arrangement.
Cross convinced the teen's mother that she could continue to "mentor" him.
Charges were filed only last week after police learned that Cross and the teen had a child together in 2015 that was kept secret until a tipster called the teen's father and broke the news.
An Akron School System spokesperson said the district was unaware of the case until our investigation alerted them but said it is now "doing our own internal investigation going back to 2012 to determine what exactly happened and when it happened"
"It was a straight failure from the system," said the teen's father. "From the school and definitely from the police."
Cross is currently being held in the Summit County Jail under $100,000 bond.
