Teacher Charged With Cyberstalking Roils North Carolina Town

Teacher Charged WithCyberstalking Roils NorthCarolina Town Mother SaidTeacher SentStudentOver'Hundreds ofTexts'A middleschool teacherhas beencharged with cyberstalking one of her 13-year-old students, and the boy's motherclaims that her son isn't the only onereceiving inappropriate text messages fromthe female teacher.Megan Mantooth, 26, is a popular eighthgrade math teacher in Burgaw MiddleSchool, a tiny town of 4,000 people insouthern North Carolina where her husbandis a deputy sheriff. She is also the mother oftwo, including a 4-month-old baby.The allegations against her have roiled thetown with many people defending her andlashing out at her accusers.Mantooth has been charged withcybertalking, allegedly sending "hundreds"of text messages to her student, whichincluded "a lot of sexual innuendos,"according to the boy's mother, ElizabethGraham.According to Graham, Mantooth obtainedher son's cellphone number from a fellowstudent and started texting the child onJune 8. Graham said that initially the mathteacher texted her son his final grades,followed by general inquiries about hissummer plans."About two hours later, she was stilltexting my child and my husband took awayhis phone," Graham said.The "hundreds" of texts that Graham saidMantooth sent her child included one thatGraham read to ABCNews.com:"I wish you were home by yourself rightnow because I don't have the kids," and"More how? As in see ME more or lessclothes more, or both."Mantooth allegedly compared herself to themiddle school female students telling theboy that she would "look better in a bikini,"Graham said. She also allegedly made plansto meet the student at his beach house,texting him, "I cannot wait 8 more days tosee you."The mother believes that the middle schoolteacher was developing an emotionalrelationship with her 13-year-old son."Because every word out of her mouthwasn't sexual," Graham said. "She wasbeing nice, like you would if you wereboyfriend and girlfriend with a 13-year-old."For the next few days, Graham and herhusband continued to respond toMantooth's texts, pretending to be theirson.According to Lt. Billy Sandars of the PenderCounty Police Department, the incidentreport was filed by Elizabeth Graham onJune 11, four days after initial contact wasallegedly made by Mantooth.Graham said that she first approachedclose friends for advice about how tohandle the situation before calling policebecause, "I thought I might beoveracting...and I really wanted to thinkabout it if I wanted my name and my son'sname out there."Graham told ABCNews.com that Mantoothalso contacted two other male students inher class via text.One of the students' mothers did not returnphone calls to ABCNews.com. The other,who prefered to remain unnamed, said thatshe could not confirm the nature of thetexts from the math teacher to her sonbecause he erased the messages. But thewoman said she thought that the teacher'sbehavior was "off.""I asked [my son], 'Why is she textingyou?' He said, 'It's okay she's not myteacher anymore.' And I said, 'No it's notok."That mother never reported Mantooth'sbehavior to the authorities and questionedthe Grahams' actions."They [the Grahams] themselves texted herfor three days," she said. "She's beengetting a lot of bad publicity around here.People are really downing her for going onTV and doing the statement that she did.""Her husband is the deputy sheriff here. Allof his family is here. All the students dolove her," the parent said.According to Graham, all text messageswere initiated by Mantooth and continuedfrom June 8 to June 13, often coming as lateas midnight.When the parents met with Sanders on June14, they handed over their phone to him.The lieutenant said he continued toimpersonate the boy through text messageswith Mantooth "for his own investigations."Mantooth turned herself in on June 16 afterPender County police called to inform herthat they had a warrant for her arrest.Sanders said that the police department isstill waiting for records from the phonecompany to confirm exactly how many textmessages were sent from Mantooth to thechild.Mantooth's voicemail box was full and shedid not return calls to ABCNews.comAfter the charges became public ElizabethGraham shut down her computer on Fridayafternoon to shield herself and their sonfrom "ugly" remarks.Commenters on ABC News' local affiliateWWAY are angry at the Grahams."Leave Megan alone!!! my guess is, this isan infatuated boy that wanted to act like thepretty young teacher liked him , in an effortto show off to his friends in order to feelspecial," wrote one angry reader.But the mother is defending her actions."I did give [Mantooth] the benefit of thedoubt. I did not have any venedettasagainst her. My son made straight A's andB's," Graham said.Community Schools Director for PenderCounty Schools, Joice Keith, toldABCNews.com that Mantooth has beensuspended with pay pending results of theinvestigation.Mantooth is free on bond. A preliminarycourt date has been set for July 21. Teacher Charged WithCyberstalking Roils NorthCarolina Town