Former volleyball coach from Tama County charged with having sex with student, 17
The former head volleyball coach for Green Mountain Garwin School District has been charged with four counts of sexual exploitation by a school employee and one count of dissemination and exhibition of obscene materials to minors.
Brycelyn Haughey, 22, of the Tama County town of Toledo, who also was a paraeducator for the district, is accused of having a sexual relationship with a 17-year-old boy from September to December 2020. She could not be reached for comment Saturday, nor could her attorney.
Tama County sheriff's Detective Trevor Killian, in an affidavit filed Dec. 21 in county District Court, said Superintendent Kym Stein contacted him in October and told him about the situation, setting off an investigation.
Stein became the district's superintendent July 1. Killian said in the affidavit that she told him the school district's previous administration had overlooked the situation "and she felt as a mandatory reporter, this was pertinent to the investigation."
The school district began investigating Haughey after she resigned from her position Sept. 23, according to the Sun-Courier newspaper in Reinbeck.
Haughey is listed as a preschool and special education paraprofessional on the website for South Tama County Elementary School, but the Sun-Courier said Tama County School District officials confirmed she had resigned her position there on Dec. 15.
Killian's affidavit said he met Dec. 1 with the student, who told him he and Haughey met and exchanged telephone numbers after he hit her vehicle while backing out of the school parking lot in September 2020. The student was supposed to fix Haughey's car, the affidavit said.
"[The student] stated that Brycelyn asked how old [he] was and he stated 17," it said. "Brycelyn then asked if [the student] was a senior and [he] said 'No, I'm a junior.' [The student] stated that Brycelyn then made a comment of 'close enough.'"
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After that, the student received flirtatious texts from Haughey and he "just went with it cause he thought she was joking around," the affidavit said. It said the student told Killian that Haughey invited him to her home on Sept. 25, 2020, and that when he arrived there, she was with a girl younger than he was.
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The student said he began drinking alcohol with Haughey and the girl, and that later that night, he and Haughey engaged in their first sexual act, the affidavit said.
It said he told Killian that he and Haughey continued to meet, drink and have sex, and that Haughey sent the him text messages with multiple "seductive" photos of herself, including one in which she was clearly nude. The relationship ended in December 2020, the affidavit said.
It said another underage student told Killian in November that he had seen the images of Haughey.
No trial date has been set for Haughey. Under Iowa law, sexual exploitation by a school employee is a Class D felony that, upon conviction, carries a maximum sentence of five years imprisonment and a maximum fine of $10,245.
This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Charge: Former volleyball coach from Tama County had sex with student, 17
