West Virginia Teacher Arrested for Alleged Grooming and Sexual Acts

A teacher from West Virginia, who is also a Republican lawmaker, faces serious allegations of grooming teenage students on the gaming platform Roblox before engaging in sexual acts with them at school. This information comes from a federal affidavit recently acquired.

David Elliot Pruitt, 36, serves in the West Virginia House of Delegates for Fayette County. He was taken into custody this week and charged with luring a minor across state lines for the purpose of engaging in sexual conduct.

Prosecutors claim Pruitt used interstate communication methods to persuade and seduce a girl into participating in illegal sexual activities and producing materials related to child sexual abuse.

The investigation commenced after the student’s family reported the situation on July 9. According to the affidavit, Pruitt first reached out to the girl when she was in eighth grade during the 2024-2025 school year while teaching middle school. They began communicating on Roblox before moving the conversation to Snapchat.

As their discussions grew more intimate, Pruitt allegedly expressed his love for the girl. By the summer of 2025, he had sent explicit photos of himself to her on Snapchat, asking her to return the favor, which she did, as stated in her testimony.

After they both transferred to a local high school, the girl reportedly met Pruitt in her classroom multiple times, claiming they had sexual encounters about five to ten times, with the last one reportedly occurring around December 2025 or January 2026.

The affidavit asserts that Pruitt continued to solicit explicit images until July 2026, urging the girl to keep their relationship secret. Investigators confiscated his cellphone and warned him about the consequences, to which he responded with a comment about the charges being public and suggested her life would greatly change.

Federal authorities believe there is sufficient evidence that between May 2025 and July 2026, Pruitt knowingly engaged in actions designed to lure minors into producing child sexual abuse materials and participating in sexual acts, breaching West Virginia laws.

Pruitt was elected as a Democrat to the West Virginia House of Delegates in 2022 and later switched his party affiliation to Republican in 2023.

In response to the allegations, State House Speaker Roger Hanshaw expressed his shock and disappointment, removing Pruitt from his position in the House and urging him to resign. Hanshaw emphasized that if the charges are accurate, the law should take its course, stating, “My heart breaks for his family.”

Fayette County Schools have not yet responded to inquiries about the situation.