Former Teacher Arrested For Sexual Relations With Student Now Married To Her

A man, charged for having an inappropriate relationship with his student at an Alabama high school, reportedly got married to her, despite the ongoing court proceedings.

Lawyers representing Thomas Blake Tucker, 25, said that the former teacher married the girl on Nov. 6, exactly a month before his hearing in court, WKRG reported.

Tucker, listed as an "itinerant special education teacher" at East Limestone High School in Limestone County, was arrested on Sept. 17 by the Limestone County Sheriff's deputies after they received a tip-off about an alleged inappropriate relationship with a student under the age of 19.

Tucker engaged in an unlawful sex act with the student, according to the criminal complaint. However, details regarding the name and age of the student were not released by the authorities.

Tucker was released from the Limestone County Detention Center on a $30,000 bond, and his case was sent to the grand jury. The bond included certain conditions such as not having any contact with his alleged victim and not attempting to communicate with the victim.

He was placed on unpaid administrative leave by the school the day after his arrest. He officially resigned from his teaching position at the end of October, according to WHNT. The Limestone County School Board later accepted his resignation during a scheduled meeting.

Meanwhile, a hearing for the motion to strike the condition on Tucker's bond was scheduled for Dec. 6.

A sexual relationship between a school employee and a student is considered a Class B felony in Alabama. If convicted, a culprit could face a minimum of 2 years and a maximum of 20 years in jail.

In a similar incident, a substitute teacher from Alabama was sentenced to state prison for having sexual relationships with two students in 2020. Whitney Mizzell, 22, pleaded guilty to three counts of performing deviant sexual acts with both students and was sentenced to a 10-year split sentence. At another Alabama school in 2019, special education teacher Lyndsey Sherrod Bates, 22, was indicted for having sex with a male student, 17, and also sending explicit photos to him and another student of unknown age. At the time of her arrest, Bates was revealed to be the daughter-in-law of a chief deputy for the Madison County sheriff's office.