She told Mentor Schools that she wanted to move closer to her fiance in Michigan. They were supposed to get married in July.
Six days later, school officials were told she was having a sexual relationship with a 15-year-old student.
The boy would meet Laughlin in her classroom before school and she would perform oral sex on him, Mentor police Capt. James Telzrow said. Police Chief Dan Llewellyn said this happened at least eight times between May 28 and June 12, when the alleged relationship came to light.
The physical relationship had not been happening for a long time, police said. The student and teacher kissed for the first time May 21, Telzrow said.
"He got her cell phone number and they would text each other. At a certain point, the texting got flirtatious," Telzrow said.
Officials learned about the suspected relationship through the boy's former girlfriend. When the boy told her he was cheating on her with a teacher, she was too upset to go to sports practice. She told her mother, who told her coach, who informed Shore Junior High School Principal Doug Baker, police said.
The initial information was vague, Llewellyn said, but school officials recognized the seriousness of the allegations. The coach then spoke to the girl, and she explained the suspected activity between Laughlin and the student in greater detail.
The school and police praised the girl for having the courage to come forward.
Laughlin was arrested Wednesday night at her Willowick home at 380 E. 329th St. She was arraigned Thursday morning on charges of sexual battery and sexual misconduct with a minor in Mentor Municipal Court.
Judge John Trebets set her bond at $200,000, which she did not post Thursday. Her preliminary hearing is scheduled for 8:45 a.m. June 26. Police asked for a high bond partly because she was planning to move to Michigan to be with her fiance. She already had left the Mentor School District, her first teaching job, and accepted a position at an all-boys school.
Mentor Schools Superintendent Jacqueline Hoynes said Laughlin was subject to the same FBI and Ohio Bureau of Criminal Identification and Investigation reference checks to which all employees are subjected before hiring. The check didn't reveal any criminal, unethical or questionable conduct.
In fact, Laughlin was the student teacher of the year at Heidelberg College in Tiffin, Hoynes said.
Hoynes called Laughlin's actions "a devastating betrayal of the fundamental trust that parents put in their children's teachers every day."
When asked how Laughlin and the student were able to use her classroom without being caught, Baker replied the school had been built in 1949 and had some blind corners.
"This particular classroom had a blind corner," he said.
Hoynes said that teachers are told to leave the doors of their classroom open when they are in there alone with students.
Police said there is no reason to think Laughlin had a sexual relationship with any other student.
If convicted, Laughlin could be sentenced to a maximum of 61/2 years in prison.
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