Tacoma teacher charged with rape of 6th grade student

A Tacoma middle school teacher is accused of having sex
with a 6th grade student over five years ago.

Keshia Shaw is charged with five counts of second degree
child rape. Pierce County prosecutors say the Gray Middle
school teacher had numerous sexual encounters with a boy,
starting from his 6th grade year.

The boy says he was re-taking a test and noticed she
wasn’t wearing any underwear. She caught him looking and
allegedly asked him if he was turned on by it. He says
she then took him into another room, locked the door and
had sex with him.

Court documents say Shaw had sex with the boy again a week
later when he stayed after school. He says their
encounters continued that summer when she would give him
rides home while his mother was at work.

The boy ran away from home during his 8th grade year but
says he went back to Gray Middle School to visit friends.
He told police he saw Shaw and that they had sex again in
a “private area” of her classroom. He says she then took
him to a bank and gave him $80. The boy says she drove
him to a parking lot and they had sex again in her car.

The boy only recently told his mom about the alleged rapes
after hearing a church sermon about molestation.

Shaw was hired as a substitute teacher in 2002 and worked
in various schools in the district until she was hired as
a science and math teacher at Gray Middle School in 2005.

“This was the first we had heard of anything like this,”
says Dan Voelpel with the Tacoma School District.

Voelpel says when the district became aware of the
allegations against Shaw in May they placed her on
administrative leave.