TACOMA — A former Sequim High School graduate and substitute teacher has pleaded not guilty to charges of engaging in sexual conversations and activity with three students at Lincoln High School in Tacoma, where she taught math.
Meredith Claire Powell, 24, was charged Friday in Pierce County Superior Court with two counts of third-degree rape of a child and one count of communicating with a minor for immoral purposes.
The teens were between 14 and 16 years old, Superior Court records say.
Powell, who had taught at the school since September 2012, was released on her own recognizance and ordered to live at a Sequim address.
She is next set to appear in Pierce County Superior Court on Feb. 25.
Superior Court records say that Powell admitted to Tacoma police she had sexual contact with two of her students between Jan. 17 and Jan. 24.
Prosecutor Mark Lindquist alleges that on Jan. 17, one student went to Powell’s Lincoln High School classroom instead of attending an assembly and the two kissed and “engaged in sexual activity.”
A few days later, Powell is accused of performing oral sex on another teen.
Prosecutors allege Powell sent a teen a photo of her naked in a bathtub.
Powell also told police she sent a third student an inappropriate text message, for which she later apologized, court records say.
Police also say Powell told them she knew what she had done was wrong and that she would apologize to the students’ parents if she had the chance.
The court ordered that she must have no contact with the three students involved or minors.
Powell is on unpaid administrative leave at the high school in Tacoma.
She graduated from Sequim High School in 2007. She had worked as a substitute teacher at Sequim High School in the spring of 2012, according to Superintendent Kelly Shea.
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Reporter Jeremy Schwartz can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5074, or at jschwartz@peninsuladailynews.com.
Sequim-Dungeness Valley Editor Joe Smillie can be reached at 360-681-2390, ext. 5052, or at jsmillie@peninsuladailynews.com.
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