An English teacher at an Alabama high school has died by apparent suicide two days after she was arrested for allegedly having sex with two students.
Leslie Gillespie, 44, was found dead in her home in Hillsboro at around 11.30am on Saturday, authorities told AL.com.
‘It appears to be a self-inflicted gunshot wound,’ Lawrence County Coroner Scott Norwood said.
An autopsy on Gillespie’s body was scheduled to take place at the Alabama Department of Forensic Sciences.
Gillespie taught English at R.A. Hubbard High School in North Courtland, a small town near the Tennessee River in the northern part of the state.
The apparent suicide took place a day after authorities announced criminal charges against Gillespie for allegedly having sex with two students.
Gillespie was arrested on Thursday for what authorities described as sexual contact that she had with two students ages 15 and 16 in her classroom after school sometime in September 2020.
She was booked into Lawrence County jail and charged with two counts of school employee engaging in a sex act with a student younger than 19 and one count each of second-degree rape and second-degree sodomy.
Gillespie was released on $60,000 bail later on Thursday.
After Gillespie’s arrest, Lawrence County Superintendent Jon Bret Smith issued a statement which read: ‘The Lawrence County school district has been made aware that an employee has been arrested.
‘Our school district treats this type of situation with the highest level of care.
‘District leaders are conducting an investigation into this matter and will support law enforcement as they do the same.
‘While the district cannot provide any specific details at this time, we want to emphasize that there is nothing more important to Lawrence County Schools than the safety and well-being of our students.
‘The district will work diligently and expediently to resolve this situation.’
