Assistant Principal Faces Statutory Rape For Allegedly Sleeping With Missouri Middle School Student

A vice-principal in southeast Missouri on Friday was accused of having sex and engaging in sexual acts with a 16-year-old male student, according to reports.

Elizabeth J. Giesler, 39, a former assistant principal at Ste. Genevieve Schools, was arrested and booked into the Ste. Genevieve County Jail, where she was released on bond Friday.

Giesler faces multiple charges including four counts of felony statutory sodomy in the second degree, three counts of felony sexual contact with a student and two counts of felony statutory rape in the second degree, according to the Daily Journal.

The teen told a Missouri State Highway Patrol trooper that the former school official performed sex acts on him at her home in Ste. Genevieve County between April 7 and April 8, according to court documents cited by the Daily Journal.

The student also told the trooper of two instances where Giesler and the boy engaged in sex acts between April and May, court records show.

The charges come amid a special investigation headed by the Missouri Highway Patrol Division of Drug and Crime Control.

Giesler was a vice principal at Ste. Genevieve Junior High School, according to the prosecutor’s attorney’s office.

The family of the teen trusted Giesler, the teen's father told KTVI, a Fox affiliate in St. Louis. She had known the ninth-grader when he started the sixth grade.

"She talked to us about my son and what she can do for him, through life like give him a better life because he’s a good football player so she was going to make sure he got on the right path," the father told the station under anonymity to protect his son’s name.

"She took advantage of him," the father said, "she manipulated him because she knew what she was doing."

Seemingly echoing the father's sentiments, the teen's grandmother said she thought Giesler was "a really nice person," until the allegations surfaced.

"And I thought she was really going to do something for my grandson, but yeah, she was doing something for him all right," she said.

Giesler, who began working for the Ste. Genevieve School District in 2014, was placed on administrative leave during the investigation.

The teen is now in special custody under state officials where he could remain for up to three months, the boy's relatives said.