UNION CITY, IN – The school sex abuse attorneys at Massillamany Jeter & Carson are investigating reports of student sexual abuse in the Randolph Eastern School Corporation. This week, police arrested Alicia Hughes after a 17-year-old male student reported having sexual intercourse with her on five separate occasions in the fall of 2025. Hughes, who was employed as an attendance secretary at Union City Junior-Senior High School, faces five counts of felony child seduction.
Court documents reflect that back in September, the student had called the school to report himself absent. He spoke with Hughes, who started texting him from her personal cell phone. Their conversations led to the two meeting at a local park. Court documents reflect that they had sex at various locations off school property. Local media reported that Hughes also had a relationship with an 18-year-old student.
According to MJC Partner and school sex abuse attorney Tom Blessing, this case fits what he describes as a pattern of grooming and sex abuse allegations against school employees. “Usually, we see abuse claims involving teachers and coaches, but any school staff with access to children could use their position of authority and trust to take advantage of them: custodial and maintenance staff, counselors, office staff, even administrators.”
Blessing said this case illustrates how some school employees start grooming students with seemingly innocent conversation, which leads to texting that often becomes flirtatious or inappropriate, then culminates in physical encounters. “It will be interesting to see the school’s policies, how this individual was screened and trained, and what ‘red flags’ were overlooked or ignored,” Blessing said. “In a lot of these school cases, institutional failures enabled the abuse. When we file a case against a school, we look for deficiencies in hiring, training, supervision and policies on the prevention, detection, reporting and investigation of abuse. We usually don’t have to look very far to find them.”
If you or someone you know has been the victim of sexual abuse at school, please contact our office for a free confidential consultation with one of our Indiana school sexual abuse attorneys.
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