Shelby Dawn Lashombe avoids jail time during sentencing after previously admitting to having sex with two teen students in Waco, Texas as one of the victim’s father insisted his son was ‘thriving’ in the aftermath of ordeal.
What if the genders were reversed…? A Texas high school teacher who admitted to having sexual trysts with two teen students has avoided jail time.
Shelby Dawn Lashombe, 25, of Waco, had been facing decades behind bars only to be offered a sweetheart deal of deferred probation for six years and a $1,000 fine as part of a plea deal with prosecutors last week, KWTX reported.
The judge additionally ordered Lashombe to spend just four weekends in jail and another 60 days working on the county chain gang.
Teen victim’s father insists son is ‘thriving’
In cases ending with deferred probation, there is no final judgement of guilt and Lashombe will avoid felony conviction if she complies with the conditions of probation.
The lenient punishment follows the father of one of the victims claiming his son was “thriving” and not traumatized by the illicit relationship.
Judge Thomas West told Lashombe in court Friday that he would have given her a more severe sentence if one of the boys’ fathers had not testified that his son is doing well.
The boy’s father said his son is going to counseling but was not traumatized by what happened.
He is excelling academically, playing well on his school football team and has recently been accepted to several universities, the dad said, according to KWTX.
His son is ‘thriving’ and does not feel victimized, the dad continued, adding that he does not consider Lashombe to be a sexual predator and does not want to see her go to prison.
Teen victim mom claims son suffering depression, anxiety following teacher tryst
However that same boy’s mother, who is reportedly in a custody battle with the father, whom she divorced, said her son suffers from depression, anxiety and has isolated himself from friends and family.
He wanted to switch schools, stopped going to Catholic Mass and skipped his high school prom, the mother said in an impact statement. She claimed Lashombe’s ‘calculated and predatory actions’ robbed her son’s innocence.
The lenient sentencing follows Lashombe pleading guilty in April to two counts of improper relationship between educator and student — second-degree felonies punishable by up to 20 years in prison.
Lashombe was arrested in September 2025 after police received a tip-off that she was spotted kissing a 16-year-old student.
Neither of the victims were students at Valley Mills High School in central Texas, where Lashombe was teaching at the time of her arrest. She’s since been working at a furniture manufacturing company in nearby Waco, according to KWTX.
The victim, a 16-year-old boy, and ‘family friend’ told investigators that he had sex with the teacher ‘more than once,’ and that the educator knew he was underage, according to an arrest affidavit.
Lashombe said that they had been having sex for about six months.
Sexual predator teacher woes
Lashombe also admitted to having sex with a second boy who was under the age of 17, and who attended a different school to the first victim.
‘She had no control over them. She had no power as a teacher over them,’ Lashombe’s attorney Cody Cleveland said.
‘The boys independently reached out to her through social media and one thing led to another. But this was not a situation where she used any authority as a teacher over them to make them enter into what would be considered nonconsensual acts.’
But there’s more.
During Friday’s sentencing, the judge decided to reduce Lashombe’s sentence due to testimony from her therapist, who said Lashombe has been diagnosed with adjustment disorders, anxiety and depression. She said the teacher also developed symptoms of PTSD for the ‘eight hours’ she spent in jail after her arrest.
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