Baker County sub charged for obscene messages with student

A Baker County substitute teacher is facing a third degree felony charge for obscene communications with a student. The offense report obtained by WOKV shows a 16-year-old student came forward to the principal of Baker County High School saying he had received inappropriate messages on his cell phone, some of which were “sexual in nature”. “We just don’t have these kind of activities that go on in Baker County,” says Sheriff Joey Dobson. The student says 34-year-old Leila Wilford added him as a Facebook friend and they started messaging. She allegedly became worried her husband would think something suspicious was happening, so the teen told Wilford to contact her on “Kik”- which is an app used to send messages, similar to texting. The messages, reviewed by the Sheriff’s Office, show Wilford asking whether the student’s girlfriend was with him. She then stated she wanted to know what it was like to kiss someone with braces- to which the student replied he was the only one in the class who wore braces. The offense report says Wilford then told the student “her husband didn’t do it for her” and asked whether the student ever wanted to do things that he couldn’t. The student says he sent a picture of himself without a shirt on when the teacher asked to “see him”, and he then asked to see her “boobs”, although Wilford did not send a picture. “Obscene communications and, basically, using the computer to solicit or seduce a child,” Dobson says. Wilford agreed to speak with investigators, telling them she didn’t know she was crossing the line and that she just wants to help people. She says she would add students on Facebook or give them her cell number in an effort to help them with their personal lives. She admitted, however, to deleting her Facebook and Kik account because “she knew she went to[o] far”, according to the report. She told the Sheriff’s Office that another teacher believed the student who made this report had been flirting with her, and she says he told her he loved her. She realized she made a mistake by messaging him on Kik and couldn’t believe the messages escalated as they did. Wilford says she never intended for any of the messages to be taken as a sexual advance on the student, although while reviewing them with investigators, she realized how they could be taken that way.