Records: School worried ex-teacher flirted a year before sex charges

Credit: DaytonDailyNews

Concerns about an ex-Miamisburg teacher’s interactions with students began more than a year before the sexual battery incident with a student that she was convicted of last week, a newly obtained school district memo shows.

Complaints involving Jessica Langford “flirting with male students” and concerns that the Centerville woman “sat on the male student’s lap” were outlined by Miamisburg school district officials in a memo for a Feb. 10, 2016, meeting with Langford.

The district provided the memo this week after this news organization sought additional personnel records, including disciplinary records involving concerns raised by staff members, students or community members.

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That February meeting date was more than 15 months before the incident in which, as a student testified last week, the eighth-grader had sex with Langford in her locked Miamisburg Middle School classroom before school on May 23, 2017. Her resignation letter was dated that same day.

Jessica Langford talks with defense attorney Lawrence Greger during her trial last week. NICK BLIZZARD/STAFF

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A Montgomery County Common Pleas Court jury on Friday found Langford, 32, guilty of three counts of sexual battery and three counts of unlawful sexual conduct with a minor. She faces a May 14 sentencing hearing.

The document outlines nine concerns district officials raised with Langford.

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“Concern: Male student was sitting at Mrs. Langford’s desk,” according to the document. “Mrs. Langford sat on the male student’s lap. Concern was that Mrs. Langford was flirting with male students.”

The document said the district found no evidence Langford was flirting with students, but said she positioned herself more as a friend than an authority figure to students.

This news organization has reached out to the school district for comment and is awaiting its response, and is seeking a response from Langford.

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Among other concerns listed in the document – created by Miamisburg Middle School Principal Kelly Thomas and reviewed by Assistant Superintendent Steve Homan – is that male students were coming to her classroom to “eat lunch with Mrs. Langford,” the document states.

“Concern expressed that door was closed and same two students were coming in every day,” according to the document.

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