News

Teacher Claims She Had Sex With Her Student Because He 'Looked and Acted Like Her Husband'

NewsPublished Jan 16, 2020
By Genny Glassman
Lacy Bucy at sentencing hearingBeacon-Journal

Thirty-four-year-old Laura Bucy of Twinsburg, Ohio, was sentenced to two years in prison last week after being found guilty of having sex with one of her 17-year-old students in 2017. And her reasoning for doing so may have been the most troubling part: At the time of her arrest, Bucy allegedly told police that the teenager “looked and acted like her husband.”

The former teacher first confided in a family member about what happened, before eventually admitting the whole thing to police.

After her confession in 2018, the teacher was arrested and officially resigned from her position at Twinsburg High School. She also surrendered her teaching certificate and dropped out of her graduate school program.

After her arrest, Bucy told police that she'd only had sex with the unnamed student one time during the previous fall.

It happened shortly after she began working as a family and consumer sciences teacher at Twinsburg High School that August. Bucy allegedly made several overtures to the teen before assaulting him, according to the Record-Courier. 

Throughout the semester, Bucy also sent inappropriate text messages to the teen, and bought him vaping products and marijuana, People reported. It culminated in the sexual assault, which took place at the school, after which, Bucy begged the boy to keep quiet.

During the January 8 hearing, the parents of the unnamed teen told the courtroom just how deeply the experience affected him.

Both parents noticed a shift in their son soon after the assault took place, the Record-Courier reported. He seemed more withdrawn, and he started drinking and hiding the bottles in his room.

The parents first tried to seek therapy for their son. It was only when police came knocking on their door and revealed what Bucy had done that things finally started to make sense.

The teen's father claimed that Bucy told his son he could never tell anyone what happened, because if he did, she might lose her job and her children. The boy's mother said her son didn't go to his senior prom and hadn't dated anyone since it happened.

“He’s supposed to feel safe and protected at school," she told Bucy, "and you took that away from him."

The teenager did not appear at the hearing last week, but condemned his former teacher in a written statement.

He claimed to have felt pressured by Bucy to go along with whatever she wanted, and worried that refusing her for sex could result in retaliation, negatively impacting his grades. He also said he was scared that he'd get in trouble if he told anyone what happened, but added that keeping their secret had taken a toll on him.

“I pray you are never allowed to work with students,” he wrote in the statement. “No kid should ever have to go through this.”

In June, Bucy entered a guilty plea to sexual battery, which is a third-degree felony.

She faced up to five years in prison, but Summit County Common Pleas Judge Susan Baker Ross only sentenced her Wednesday to just two, with eligibility for early release in six months. Bucy will also have to register as a sex offender, which means she'll have to report her address to police every 90 days for the rest of her life.

“[The teen's family] deserve better and I’m sorry I allowed this to occur,” the teacher said at the hearing. “I do not believe this incident is a true reflection of who I am and will never let it happen again.”

During the proceeding, Assistant Prosecutor Brian Stano pointed out the main issue in prosecuting cases like Bucy's: that people often assume a male student can't be the victim of his teacher.

“That myth and hypocrisy needs to die here and now,” he said. “Sexual assault causes pain and devastation -- no matter what the genders are.”

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