A Missouri teacher has been sentenced to prison for paying her underage students with cash, alcohol and marijuana in exchange for sex.
Carissa Smith, a former substitute teacher at Dixon Middle School in Dixon, was sentenced to 10 years in prison on Nov. 19, as reported by local news outlet KRCG.
Smith, 30, pleaded guilty to two counts of sexual contact with a student and one count of first-degree endangering the welfare of a child in September, per the outlet.
Smith's sentence includes six years in the Missouri Department of Corrections for the endangering the welfare of a child charge and two years for each sexual contact charge.
As previously reported, Smith was arrested in November 2024 and originally faced multiple felony charges, including statutory rape, sex trafficking, statutory sodomy, sexual contact with a student, hindering the prosecution of a felony and a charge for patronizing prostitution, according to court records.
Several underage students told investigators that they had sex with Smith in exchange for money, according to a probable cause affidavit.
According to the affidavit, Smith sent nude pictures of herself on Snapchat to one of her victims before they later had sex. Smith began to have sex with multiple underage students, according to the affidavit, picking them up at their homes and either having sex with them at her own house while her husband was out of town or in her car.
Smith later paid several students cash or sent them money via CashApp, the probable cause affidavit states, and also offered the underage children marijuana or alcohol on some occasions.
The victims told police that Smith would attempt to intimidate them to cover up her actions, per the affidavit.
"This is very disturbing and distressing information for everyone in our school community," Dixon R-I School District Superintendent Travis Bohrer wrote in a letter to students' families after Smith's arrest in November.
