Ex-teacher convicted of having sex with student is sentenced

Victoria “Tori” Fowler, 30, of Caulfield, pleaded guilty in Howell County Court March 9 to two counts of having sexual contact with a student in connection with allegations of an inappropriate romantic and sexual relationship with a 16-year-old student she met while she was employed as a teacher at the Bakersfield School District in 2022-23 school year.

As part of the agreement, the original two charges of statutory rape and statutory sodomy were dismissed. 

She was given a suspended sentence and placed on supervised probation for 5 years. She was ordered to surrender her teaching license and not seek it again, have no contact with the victim in the case or other students at school, have no unsupervised contact with children under the age of 18 except her own children and to register as a sex offender. 

According to the court documents in the case, the investigation began Aug. 30, 2023, when officers with the Ozark and Howell County Sheriff’s Departments were made aware of nude photos sent between the woman and the teenager. The probable cause statement says that Fowler admitted to meeting with the teen for sex three times in southwestern Howell County between July 4 and Aug. 1, 2023. The teen reportedly said the alleged acts began as early as May. 

Fowler left the Bakersfield School District at the end of the 2022-23 school year to take a job at the Lutie School District for the 2023-24 school year. Lutie Superintendent Kathalee Cole said that Fowler was terminated immediately when school officials were made aware of the charges and allegations. 

Fowler was arrested and held in custody for a 24-hour time period in the Ozark County Jail on Aug. 31, 2023, but because the alleged physical acts are said to have occurred in Howell County, the case was investigated and charges filed there. Ozark County does not have jurisdiction over the case due to the location of the alleged incidents, therefore she was released from custody here. 

The case was turned over to the Howell County Prosecutor, who brought the allegations before a grand jury there. The grand jury, a group of peers in Howell County, determined that there was enough evidence to bring the charges against her in an indictment that was filed Sept. 13.