Former school counselor accused of sexually abusing student goes on trial in Fort Worth

School counselor Shannon Hathaway and a ninth-grade student at Harwood Junior High had sex at her Keller home when her husband was away, according to a warrant. They went to her home several times.

But the student ended their relationship when his mother caught him and Hathaway naked in his bedroom, the warrant stated.

Hathaway resigned from her job with the Hurst-Euless-Bedford school district, was arrested in 2018 and was charged with improper relationship between an educator and a student.

Three years later, her trial will start this week in Criminal District Court No. 297 in Fort Worth. Jury selection began Monday.

Hathaway is accused of having sex with the ninth-grade student nearly a dozen times at her Keller home and his home in Euless.

His sister told authorities that during the 2016-2017 school year, Hathaway would spend a lot of time with her brother, according to the warrant obtained by the Fort Worth Star-Telegram in 2018.

School district officials became aware of Hathaway’s relationship with the student when the teen’s sister informed school administrators of it on May 2018, according to the warrant.

In May 2018, Bedford police investigators contacted the then 17-year-old boy and asked him about his relationship with Hathaway, according to the affidavit.

The 17-year-old told investigators that while he was a student at Harwood, he had sex with Hathaway two or three times at her home and about eight times at his home in Euless. He said it was consensual.

During the times he had sex with Hathaway at her home in Keller, her husband was away, he told police. He said his sister and his sister’s friend stayed overnight at Hathaway’s home at the same time. He told investigators he would have sex with Hathaway in the master bedroom while his sister and her friend slept in a guest room.

Hathaway told the student’s sister that she loved him so much that she would leave her husband, according to the warrant.

After about a year — and after his mother walked in on them naked in his bedroom at home — he decided to break off his relationship with Hathaway, he told police. Around the same time, he began attending high school in Euless.

This report contains information from Fort Worth Star-Telegram archives.