A Nebraska substitute teacher who was arrested naked in a car with a teenage student is a mother who is married to a high-ranking, Harvard-educated federal employee, according to records and social media accounts.
Erin Ward, 45, was charged with felony sexual abuse by a school employee after she confessed to having sex with a 17-year-old boy, a student at Burke High School where she worked, in the back of her car.
According to social media posts shared by the Gretna couple, Ward is also accused of having an affair with her husband, the Pentagon secretary, for sleeping with the teen — with whom she had no relationship. They say they have three children.
According to his LinkedIn page, Doug Ward has spent nearly 20 years with U.S. Strategic Command, a unified combatant command within the Department of Defense headquartered at Offutt Air Force Base in Omaha.
This command detects and thwarts attacks against the United States and its allies.
Doug Ward began his career as a deputy branch chief in 2005 and was promoted to deputy chief of the Commander Action Group in February, his profile said.
Doug Ward also has a long educational history, with degrees from the University of Illinois, Bellevue University, and Harvard Extension School.
According to LinkedIn, he is currently pursuing a doctoral degree in defense and strategic studies at Missouri State University.
their relationship was the first Daily Mail reported.
Erin Ward was arrested early Saturday morning after Douglas County sheriff’s deputies spotted her fooling around with a teenage boy in the car she was sharing with her husband.
Around 3 a.m., police were dispatched to a report of a suspicious vehicle parked on a dead-end road.
When they looked inside the vehicle, they saw a naked substitute teacher and a shirtless teenage boy sitting in the back seat, the sheriff’s office said.
Panicking, the boy rushed to the driver’s seat and drove away, but crashed two blocks later, at which point he got out of the car and fled on foot.
Erin Ward remained in the car, where she allegedly confessed to wearing her clothes and sleeping with the boy.
Police found her ID from Omaha Public Schools and said she had substituted at various schools in the area, including a teen school.
The high school student was later found hiding in a yard wearing a T-shirt and underwear, the sheriff’s office said.
In Nebraska, the teacher avoided a statutory rape charge because the boy was over the age of sexual consent (16 years old), but he was still charged with a felony charge of sexual abuse by a school employee.
