Sevier County Teacher Arrested for Raping Her Student, Exchanging Explicit Texts with Others on Snapchat
A Sevier County Schools teacher has been arrested on charges of rape and sexual exploitation of minors involving her students.
Ashley Palmer, 42 is facing two counts of statutory rape by an authority figure and two charges of aggravated sexual exploitation of a minor, which court records specify are from sending sexual photos or videos to at least one underage boy over Snapchat.
According to court records obtained by WBIR, for one of the charges, these communications were exchanged from July 1 to sometime in December 2025, and for the other, they happened between Aug. 1 and sometime in December 2025. She was an 8th-grade ELA teacher at Sevier County Junior High.
The records confirmed that these minors were students in the Sevier County School System, which is the school system where Palmer was employed.
The records also state that, for both charges of statutory rape, there was "more than one instance of sexual intercourse" with the underage boys that occurred between July 14 and Dec. 11, 2025, for one of the charges, and between Sept. 10 and Dec. 17, 2025, for the other. They also noted that all of these incidents took place in Sevier County.
Detectives arrested Palmer on Friday afternoon, according to the Sevierville Police Department.
A statement issued by Sevier County School System Superintendent Stephanie Huskey dated Friday, Dec. 19, said:
"Late on Thursday afternoon (December 18, 2025), Sevier County Schools administrators received communication from a community member regarding allegations of inappropriate activity between a student and a teacher, Mrs. Ashley Palmer. School officials immediately referred the matter to law enforcement and worked to connect potential witnesses and/or individuals of interest with investigators. By the following morning, Mrs. Palmer was placed on suspension status via telephone call pending the results of an outside investigation by local law enforcement. She will remain on an indefinite suspension as this process plays out."The school system later issued another statement on Monday. It can be read below.
"Based on conversation with Sevierville Police Department officials regarding the progress of their ongoing investigation, Director Huskey signed Charges of Dismissal for Mrs. Palmer which were delivered to her today. The Sevier County School System promptly reports all allegations of potential abuse including those of a sexual nature to the proper authorities, and, having done so in this instance, we have and will continue to cooperate fully with police agencies as they seek to resolve this matter. As required by state statute, Mrs. Palmer's suspension and dismissal are in the process of being reported to the Tennessee Board of Education. Our deepest sympathies are with those who are affected by these events."