A 54-year-old Texas teacher will serve eight years of probation and lose her teaching license after sending nude photos to a 15-year-old student.
Christine Paige Cockrell, who taught eighth grade at Gatesville Junior High near Waco, was arrested in May 2024, as reported by Texas Scorecard.
She was indicted in February on two counts of an improper relationship between an educator and a student. Each offense carried a possible sentence of two to 20 years in prison, but Cockrell accepted a plea deal that avoided jail time.
According to police documents, Cockrell sent multiple explicit images to two students in 2023 and asked them to send nude photos in return, Fox 44 reported. No physical contact was alleged. One of the victims was a student of Gatesville High School, and the other lived in Ohio at the time Cockrell was arrested.
Under the agreement, Cockrell will permanently surrender her teaching certificate but will not be required to register as a sex offender. Texas law does not require registration in cases of improper relationships between educators and students when no physical contact occurs.
A statement issued by Gatesville ISD at the time of her arrest stated that back on April 11, 2024, the district was informed that a student allegedly received what was termed an "inappropriate online communication" from a Gatesville Junior High School teacher.
The statement said the teacher was immediately placed on administrative leave while Gatesville ISD administration and law enforcement officials started their investigation. She submitted a letter of resignation and from that point was not allowed on school district property.
