Valley High teacher, student exchanged 13,000 text messages, Metro report states

A first-year Valley High School teacher who is facing a felony charge of sexual misconduct with a pupil exchanged over 13,000 text messages with the student, a Metro arrest report states.

Jillian Lafave, a special education resource teacher, started working for the Clark County School District at the beginning of the 2015-16 school year, a school district spokeswoman said Tuesday.

She was arrested Jan. 15 and faces a felony punishable by one to five years in prison and a $10,000 fine under state law.

The student, who is 16 to 17 years old, told police he started exchanging text messages with his teacher on Oct. 16 after she helped him find a homecoming date, states the report that was released Tuesday. The student is in special education classes for a learning disability. Lafave is his English teacher and is in charge of tracking his progress, police said.

The 13,000 text messages were exchanged over a three-month period, averaging just under 150 texts per day.

Lafave and the student had multiple incidents of inappropriate contact inside her classroom at the school, 2839 Burnham Ave. near the intersection of Vegas Valley Drive and Eastern Avenue, the report states. Those incidents began sometime before Thanksgiving break, it states.

The student said "he loves Lafave and she loves him" when he gave his statement to police on Jan. 14. Police described him as being "distraught" when they told him Lafave would be investigated.

Lafave was interviewed by police Jan. 15 and admitted to kissing the student on the mouth on several occasions and touching his private parts once about Jan. 4, police said. She told police that she never had "sexual penetration" with the student.

Lafave and her parents moved to Las Vegas from Houston in 2015. Jillian Lafave and her father, Norman, started teaching at Valley in August and were featured in a Vegas PBS "Inside Education" episode in September, school district spokeswoman Melinda Malone said.

"Just to have the kids come back in a year, or a year or two, and say ... you really helped me figure out what I wanted to do," Lafave said in the video. "If I have that, I'm happy."

Featuring Lafave in the segment at the start of the school year was "just a bad coincidence," Malone said. She emphasized Norman Lafave has nothing to do with the allegations against his daughter.

Information on Lafave's teaching and education background weren't immediately available.

In a letter sent home to parents Monday afternoon, the school's principal said student safety was her first priority.

"Some of you may be aware that there were allegations related to inappropriate conduct regarding a teacher at our school," Principal Ramona Esparza wrote in the letter. She added that the school is cooperating fully with school district police and will "work hard to minimize any disruption" in the learning environment.

Lafave was released on $5,000 bail and is set to appear in court March 30, according to court records.

Another woman who taught for the school district was arrested Dec. 3 on charges of a sex act with a pupil 16 or 17 years old. Kristy Kay Yegge, 38, had been employed with the school district since 2015 and was working with the emergency medical technician program at Veterans Tribute Career & Technical Academy at the time of her arrest.

Las Vegas Review-Journal writer Kimber Laux contributed to this report.
Contact Lawren Linehan at llinehan@reviewjournal.com or at 702-383-0381. Find her on Twitter: @lawrenlinehan