Summary: A New Jersey teacher is charged with having sexual relations with an underage student that she had adopted on multiple occasions.
A 43-year-old teacher from Trenton, New Jersey has been accused of adopting a student so she could have sex with him whenever she wanted. Court documents explain that Rayna Culver, a middle school teacher, adopted the 15-year-old student and then sexually assaulted him almost daily.
The boy claims that he had been kicked out of his relative’s home in December 2015 when she offered to take him in. The South Jersey Local News reported that the two had a “very close” relationship when she was his teacher at Rivera Middle School. A few months after he moved into her home, she became his legal guardian. The victim believed “that the purpose of her taking him in was to eventually make sex a part of their relationship.”
Culver was arrested in May and charged with second-degree sexual assault and second-degree endangering the welfare of a child. She is married. Her attorney, Robin Lord, said the claims are “completely fabricated and made up.”
Court documents describe that the boy told officials that the teacher started touching him inappropriately and undressing him, which led up to more sexual interactions. The victim said, “After that first incident, they would engage in sex often, and it was to the point where he felt that if he told her to stop she would get mad and kick him out of the house. He told Culver via text message that he didn’t want to have sex anymore, and she made it clear that she did not want it to stop.” He claims that their sexual interactions have been going on “almost every day over several months.”
Culver denies that anything wrong transpired between the two. Her lawyer said she “looks forward to these charges being dismissed. The state’s theory of the case is a completely fabricated recitation made up by a troubled, young man.”
Unfortunately for her, evidence in the form of text messages can be pretty hard to discount. The boy gave his phone to the authorities in April so they could see the text messages that have been interchanging between the two. The complaint reads, “Throughout the course of the conversations, Culver and (the victim) get into in-depth conversations regarding sex, having sex and sexual acts.” He also refers to her as “mom” in the text messages.
Culver is certainly not the first teacher to be accused of having sexual relations with a male student, especially in New Jersey. She may be one of the only ones to be accused of such acts on a student that she had taken in and adopted. This year alone, there have been a number of women arrested for inappropriate relations with students.
Here are just a few of the other accused teachers: Loryn Barclay, a high school substitute teacher accused of having sex a number of times with a 17-year-old student; Lindsey Jarvis, a teacher’s aide at a middle school accused of rape and sodomy of a minor; Nataly Lopez, a middle school substitute teacher accused of having sexual contact with a student; Laura Ramos, a high school teacher accused of having sex multiple times with a special education student.
Do you think teachers should keep a distance from students, not exchanging personal information like phone numbers to ensure inappropriate relationships don’t form? Tell us your thoughts in the comments below.
To learn more about teachers that cross the line, read these articles:
- Teacher Arrested after Admitting to Having Sex with Student in Her Car
- Project Veritas Uncovers Gruesome Truths about Teacher Unions
- Vili Fualaau Files for Separation from Former Teacher Mary Kay Letourneau
Photo: farrahgray.com