Iowa teacher, 24, says it's 'school's fault' that she had sex with teenager

A substitute teacher from Iowa who had sex with a student for much of the 2015-16 academic year has blamed the school where she worked, according to reports on Wednesday 27 July.

Mary Beth Haglin, 24, admitted having sex with a 17-year-old boy in the Cedar Rapids Community School District.

Now, Haglin has blamed education officials for her indiscretions claiming that they failed to stop her and subsequently "allowed" a relationship to blossom between the pair.

Haglin worked at the George Washington High School and was arrested on Friday 22 July on suspicion of sexual exploitation of a minor.

Haglin faces a prison sentence of up to two years and the possibility of having to register as a sex offender for the next 10 years. She was released from custody on Saturday 23 July and gave a series of interviews with local media saying that school officials knew what was going on and that they are to blame for her indiscretions.

"These people all knew what was going on, and yet hey turned a blind eye because they wanted to protect their school. They didn't want it to get into the limelight," Haglin told KGAN-TV, saying she first had sex with the teenager in October 2015. "They allowed this to happen. They knew in February."

Officials at the school did not report the incident to police and cited a miscommunication with a local agency SubCentral, a multi-district database for substitute teachers, and allowed her to stay in her job until May.

"They didn't ban me," Haglin told the Cedar Rapids Gazette. "They never actually said they were banning me from school grounds, they never said they were banning me from working at any other school, they never said they were banning me from thus-and-so many feet of any school. They never said any of that."

In another interview with KCRG, Haglin said:"I do take responsibility. I'm not shying away from this. I'm facing this head on." Haglin will appear in court again for a preliminary hearing on 12 August 2016.