A former Van Buren High School volleyball coach was arrested Wednesday on a warrant charging her with having sexual relations with a minor student, according to a news release from the Van Buren Police Department.
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Katherine Eskridge of Fort Smith, whose age was not available, surrendered Wednesday afternoon to Van Buren police on the warrant that charged her with first-degree sexual assault, a felony.
She was released from the Crawford County jail Wednesday evening after posting a $25,000 bond. A phone number for Eskridge was not found Thursday.
A statement from the Van Buren School District on Thursday said district officials were aware of the charges against Eskridge and that she had resigned from her school district job on Aug. 15. The statement said the district took all appropriate action on the matter and had no further comment.
According to police reports, a minor student reported Aug. 6 that he had been having sex with Eskridge since early March and was living with her in Fort Smith. He told an investigator that since the relationship began, the two had sex at least 100 times, mostly at Eskridge's Fort Smith home but also once at his parents' home in Van Buren and once behind a mini-storage unit in Van Buren.
The student told police he decided to report Eskridge because he was feeling guilty about the relationship and because she had stolen some things from him.
He said he and Eskridge were on their way to Dallas, where she has family, and he talked to her at a restaurant in Sallisaw, Okla., about possibly revealing their relationship, the police reports said. He said she became angry and, when he went to the restroom, she left him at the restaurant, taking his wallet and other property, and later locking him out of her home in Fort Smith, the reports said.
NW News on 09/04/2015