Teacher Left Scratch Marks on Student’s Back after Sleeping with Him in Driveway; Arrested in Missouri

Scratches discovered on a teenage boy led to a sex crime conviction for his teacher.

The 16-year-old boy allegedly showed another pupil images of his scratch-marked back.

He claimed his teacher left the markings after the two had intercourse in the other student’s driveway, according to the probable cause statement obtained by PEOPLE.

Hailey Clifton-Carmack, a former high school teacher from Laquey, Mo., pled guilty to criminal sexual contact with a pupil on Friday, September 6, according to her signed plea agreement. (The January charges, which included child molestation, statutory rape, and endangering a child’s welfare, were dropped as part of the plea agreement.)

Pulaski County Prosecuting Attorney Kevin S. Hillman tells PEOPLE that she faces four years in prison under Missouri’s Sex Offender Assessment Program for encounters that occurred between November and December 2023.

According to a probable cause statement, a student witness informed Detective Sergeant Bryan Gibbs that Clifton-Carmack “has openly discussed her personal life with the class and stated she has gotten in trouble with the administration for being ‘too close with students.'”

The Laquey School District superintendent confirmed a private discussion with the instructor about her student interactions, according to the detective.

According to the student informant, the victim stated that “he was the reason” his teacher’s “divorce was pushed through.”

Online court records seen by PEOPLE show that Clifton-Carmack’s spouse filed for divorce from her in August 2023. The couple, who had a kid together, divorced the next month, according to a judgment and decree of dissolution of marriage.

When approached by the detective on December 8, 2023, “Hailey handed over her phone with no issues and did not have the normal behavior of someone facing the same accusations,” according to the investigator’s statement.

Investigators discovered on the phone “a conversation between her and the confidential victim discussing their relationship.”

Furthermore, according to the criminal complaint, Clifton-Carmack maintained contact with the victim until December 23, when she left the state, with roommates informing the detective that she had “moved to Texas to live with her family down there.”

Another witness, whose name was omitted by law enforcement, informed Gibbs, according to his probable cause statement, that she confronted the teen’s father about allegedly knowing about the abuse but doing nothing to prevent it.

When she told him she was going to tell authorities about what he knew, the father allegedly said, “They are going to do it behind my back, so I may as well let it happen.”

According to the probable cause statement, the father reportedly allegedly told the witness that the couple utilized classmates as “look-outs while they had sex during school,” that she had visited him before leaving for Texas, and that “he would lie for his son if he had to.”

Clifton-Carmack was detained in January by Garden Ridge police in Texas and then extradited to Missouri to face the accusations.

The teen’s father was originally charged with child endangerment.

Hillman tells PEOPLE that his case is “on hold” until the teacher is punished “as he has agreed to assist the State and testify if needed.”