CHARLESTON, W.Va. – Former middle school teacher and 2014 Miss Kentucky pageant winner, Ramsey Bearse was sentenced to two years in prison.
Bearse, 29, must register as a sex offender for life after exchanging sexual photos with a teenage student when she was working as a West Virginia middle school teacher. In addition to her two-year prison sentence, she was sentenced 10 years of supervised release, according to Kanawha Assistant Prosecutor Meshell Jarrett.
She admitted to exchanging photos with the student on Snapchat between August and October 2018. A parent of the male student reported finding the images on the teen’s phone, news outlets said.
Bearse had initially testified that she meant to send a photo to her husband, but accidentally sent it to the teen. She claimed the student asked for additional photos, so she continued to send them because she was “afraid to not appease him.”
Tuesday she accepted “full responsibility” for her actions.
Under her maiden name of Carpenter, Bearse was crowned Miss Kentucky in 2014 in the Miss America pageant.
She was suspended from her teaching position during the investigation, and the Kanawha County school district has said she no longer works there.
Bearse must report to prison on Monday according to The Charleston Gazette-Mail.
The Associated Press contributed to this story.
