Did the pregnant teacher accused of raping a 12-year-old boy give birth in prison?

First published: July 9, 2024, 11:12 a.m. PDT

A Tennessee Teacher The defendant, a 12-year-old schoolgirl, is accused of giving birth to the boy’s child in prison.

Alissa McCommon, 39, appeared in Tipton County District Court on July 2 for a pretrial hearing in her case.

The fourth-grade teacher will face trial early next year on charges including child rape, aggravated rape of a minor and aggravated stalking and harassment after a grand jury voted to indict the educator on 23 counts related to the alleged abuse of five boys, ages 12 to 17. McCommon has pleaded not guilty to all counts.

The Covington Police Department (CPD) McCommon was first arrested in September following an investigation into allegations of sexual misconduct against a 12-year-old student. Photos from this arrest show her stunned husband watching his wife being taken to prison

McCommon posted bail, but a month later she was back behind bars. allegedly violated the conditions of their pre-trial release.

At McCommons’ bail revocation hearing, Detective Tony Doss of the Covington Police DepartmentAn audio recording of McCommon was played telling her alleged victim that she was pregnant and planned to “raise and love this baby, and I’m going to do it alone.”

In another text message, Doss said, McCommon allegedly wrote, “This was a mistake, this is my burden.” McCommon further told the victim to “delete this number” and “please don’t get me in trouble,” Doss said.

The CPD, the Tipton County Sheriff’s Office and McCommon’s attorneys did not respond to multiple requests for comment from Inside Edition Digital at the time, seeking to confirm the pregnancy.

Five months later, McCommon appeared in court was rocking something that looked like a baby bump in video posted by WREG because she was indicted on these charges before the grand jury.

Once again, the CPD, the Tipton County Sheriff’s Office and McCommon’s attorneys did not respond to multiple requests for comment from Inside Edition Digital attempting to confirm the pregnancy at this time.

However, that shock was nowhere to be seen on July 2, when McCommon appeared in court for a pretrial hearing. That hearing took place nine months after McCommon first mentioned the pregnancy to her alleged victim.

Inside Edition Digital reached out to the CPD, the Tipton County Sheriff’s Office and McCommon’s attorneys to ask if the person accused of rape had given birth while in custody, but all three declined to comment.

It is unclear what would have happened if McCommon had actually given birth, as there is no national standard for the care of pregnant women. Most states have chosen to leave the decision about how to treat pregnant inmates to individual prisons and correctional facilities, whose policies are communicated to inmates, according to a 2013 study in the Journal of Ethics of the American Medical Association.

There is also no law requiring states to report the number of pregnant prisoners or the outcomes of their pregnancies, even though the AMA study found that up to 10 percent of all female prisoners enter prison pregnant and about 2,000 babies are born behind bars each year.

The alleged father, now 15, took the stand just weeks after McCommon told him about the pregnancy. Hearing in camera This ended with the judge’s decision to take the case to trial.

The investigation into McCommon began when law enforcement learned that she had been “suspended from her position without pay by Tipton County Schools as a result of the allegations,” according to CPD.

In March, the CPD announced that it had identified 21 possible victims after a seven-month investigation. The details of that investigation were then presented to the grand jury, which voted to indict McCommon. The charges were:

• Rape of a child
• Serious abuse of minors (five counts)
• Sexual exploitation by electronic means (four counts)
• Incitement of minors to commit aggravated rape (four counts)
• Sexual abuse by a person in authority (two counts)
• Coercion of a witness (two counts)
• Aggravated stalking (two counts)
• Violation of the Child Protection Act
• Manipulation of evidence
• harassment

If convicted on all counts, McCommon could face life in prison.

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