A middle school teacher and former Miss Kentucky pageant winner has been arrested on suspicion of sending nude photographs of herself to a 15-year-old boy, authorities said.
Ramsey Bearse, a 28-year-old teacher at Andrew Jackson Middle School outside Charleston, West Virginia, allegedly sent the photos to a former student, according to the Kanawha County Sheriff’s Office.
The boy’s parents found the photos on his phone and told police about them last week. They said their son was a student at Andrew Jackson from 6th to 8th grade and that Bearse was a teacher there during some of that time, according to a criminal complaint.
In an interview with police, Bearse admitted to sending at least four photos of her topless via Snapchat from about August to October, the complaint states.
Sheriff’s officials said she is charged with four counts of distributing obscene materials to a minor, a felony, but prosecutors have not confirmed the charges were filed.
The former beauty queen has been suspended from her teaching position and was released on a $10,000 property bond after her arraignment, the sheriff’s office said.
Bearse, who competed in pageants under the name Ramsey Carpenter, was named Miss Kentucky in 2014.
She won the preliminary talent competition at the national Miss America pageant in Atlantic City for her fiddle performance, CNN affiliate WTVQ reported at the time. Her platform issue was raising awareness about multiple sclerosis, which she was diagnosed with in 2010, WTVQ reported.