Tatum Hatch appears in a booking photo from January 2024. (Ouachita Parish Sheriff’s Office)
A now-former Louisiana high school teacher carried on an improper relationship with a student for a year and a half, authorities say.
Tatum Hatch, 32, stands accused of one count of computer-initiated solicitation of a minor, according to Ouachita Parish Sheriff’s Office jail records reviewed by Law&Crime.
The woman allegedly wanted to be the “first” person the child had sex with — at one point fretting the boy would have sex with someone else, according to an arrest warrant affidavit obtained by Law&Crime.
On Dec. 15, 2023, the alleged victim told his father about the illicit relationship, the affidavit alleges. The boy allegedly told his father the two had been involved since well before he was 15 years old.
To bolster his story about the much older woman in his life, the boy then showed his father a series of Instagram messages allegedly between himself and the then-West Monroe High School teacher “that supported his son’s claims,” the affidavit alleges.
Content warning: descriptions of child sexual abuse.
In a screen-recorded message thread that was viewed by a sheriff’s deputy, Hatch and the 15-year-old boy discuss various details about potentially having sex, according to the affidavit.
“Later in the message thread, Hatch describes to the victim that he will come in through her bedroom window,” the affidavit reads. “She then asks him if he will be rough or gentle with her. The victim responds by asking her what she wants. Hatch then replies that she doesn’t know, but she has thought about it.”
In one exchange, the unlawful alleged couple share their fears, according to the affidavit. The boy appears to express a general fear. Still a teacher at this point, the woman allegedly expresses her fear that someone else will take the child’s virginity.
Conversations between the boy and Hatch allegedly took place over several months, the affidavit says.
In one message, Hatch allegedly told the boy that she would not get in “as much trouble” if he came to visit her — as opposed to her visiting him. But she allegedly went to his residence once anyway.
In a particularly disturbing incident disclosed on the direct messages, the pair discuss how the defendant touched the boy’s genitalia during a late-night meeting at the end of his driveway — while Hatch’s infant was in the back seat of her nearby car, the affidavit alleges.
During her own Mirandized interview, Hatch allegedly admitted to talking to the boy on Instagram — but said she “was worried that if she admitted to certain questions about what she had sent the victim that she would lose her children,” according to the affidavit.
The now-ex-teacher allegedly admitted to giving the boy between $500-600 but she said it was because “she was afraid of the victim because of a rumor she had heard about him,” the affidavit says.
According to the sheriff’s office, a forensic download of the 15-year-old’s phone turned up a nude photo of the defendant, which aligned with what the boy had earlier told law enforcement.
Hatch was placed on administrative leave on Dec. 15, the school told El Dorado, Arkansas-based NBC affiliate KTVE — which serves the Monroe region of Louisiana. Hatch resigned on Dec. 26, 2023.
The defendant was arrested on a warrant on Jan. 3, the sheriff’s office told Law&Crime. The defendant was detained in the Ouachita Parish jail and released the next day after posting $10,000 bond.
She appeared in court on Friday.
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