A female Henderson High School teacher who resigned over allegations of sexual misconduct with a male student will serve just 180 days in jail after admitting her guilt.
Kathryn Laraine Prior, 36, pleaded guilty to improper relationship between educator and student, a second-degree felony punishable by 2 to 20 years in prison.
Judge David Hill of the 4th District Court in Rusk County accepted Prior’s plea and sentenced her to 10 years of probation plus 180 days in the Rusk County Jail, which she began serving on March 30.
Prior was a vocational agriculture education teacher in the Henderson Independent School District when she was arrested in December 2024.
She was charged with improper relationship and indecency with a child by sexual contact, both second-degree felonies, as well as possessing between 10 and 50 images of child sexual abuse material on her cell phone, a third-degree felony.
Prior admitted to touching the student inappropriately while she was driving him home in her car and exchanging sexually explicit messages and photos with the boy via the Instagram app.
As part of her plea deal, the CSAM charge was dropped. The indecency charge was “taken into consideration,” meaning she admitted guilt and it was considered during sentencing but she will not be prosecuted for the offense in the future.
Prior was also reportedly required to surrender her teaching certificate.
However, the State Board for Educator Certification has no record of issuing Prior a certificate. Her name does not currently appear on the Do Not Hire Registry.
Prior will not have to register as a sex offender. Under Texas law, improper relationship is not a crime that requires sex offender registration.
Several female Texas teachers who admitted targeting male students have received little—or no—jail time.
Marshall ISD teacher Claire Burris was also sentenced to just 180 days in jail after pleading guilty to sex with a male student, while London ISD teacher Amber Prince received just 60 days in jail for having sex with a male student—12 days a year for 5 years.
Kilgore ISD teacher Kayla O’Dell got no time behind bars after pleading guilty to a “sexual relationship” with a student but was jailed a few months later for violating her probation.
Gatesville ISD teacher Christine Cockrell also received no jail time after admitting to sexting a Gatesville ISD boy. Rockdale ISD teacher Shawnee Despain and Krum ISD band director Carol Turner were sentenced to just probation for sexual felonies against male students.
Over the past few years, a growing number of Texas teachers have been accused of sex crimes against students and other minors, and thousands have been reported to the state for sexual misconduct.
