A married, former gym teacher in Rhode Island is scheduled to be arraigned this month on sexual assault charges for allegedly grooming a student into an inappropriate relationship starting in his sophomore year and planning to have sex with the boy when he turned 18.
Police on February 27 charged Alisha Crins, 39, with two counts of third-degree sexual assault during her time as a teacher at Ponaganset High School in Glocester, a small town of hardly 10,000 residents just northwest of Providence, RI.
The charges are the result of an investigation launched after the student filed a formal complaint against the teacher several months after his 2025 graduation.
Events detailed in a police affidavit reveal a series of grooming behaviors often found in female teacher sexual misconduct cases, experts on such crimes say, where the educator typically flatters the male student and entices him with provocative photos and videos.
The affidavit, the case’s charging document, was obtained WPRI Channel 12 in Providence.
According to the affidavit, the student told police that Crins, who was his physical education teacher when he was a sophomore, began texting him on his cell phone after she apparently found his number online.
At first, she simply asked him to do some work for her while she was on summer break, but the job never materialized.
“Though the plan never came to fruition, the two continued communication via text message and through social media,” the affidavit stated.
Then, in the student’s junior year, the teacher allegedly began teasing him that he “got away” with “whatever he wanted” and began telling him he “looked good,” according to the document.
The messages became more intimate. Crin allegedly asked the student if she could wear his jersey during a high school prep rally and often asked to wear his sweatshirts.
A turning point came the day the teacher said it was her birthday and asked the boy what he was giving her but then said she would like to have “a kiss” and provided her home address.
The student said he drove to the teacher’s neighborhood, parked on a nearby side street, and she joined him inside his vehicle.
He claimed the teacher said, “I can’t believe I’m going to do this… You can’t tell anybody,” before grabbing his face and kissing him for nearly 15 minutes, according to the affidavit.
According to WPRI’s reporting of the document:
In the following days, the student claimed the teacher texted him several times, saying that she “Can’t stop thinking about him,” that he was a “good kisser,” that she couldn’t stop “thinking about his lips” and that he had “impressed” her, according to the affidavit.
The student told police the teacher invited him back to her residence several weeks later, where he parked in the same spot and the two kissed again inside his vehicle. This time, the affidavit said the teacher got on top of the student in the back seat and engaged in sexual contact with him.
The student showed police photos and videos the of the gym teacher in lingerie that she sent him when he was 17 years old. He said she sent nude photos and videos of herself, but only after he turned 18, according to the affidavit.
The student told investigators the relationship never resulted in sexual intercourse.
Police said that Crins, when questioned, said the two had made plans to have sex once he turned 18, but she said they never acted upon it.
She also claimed she ended the relationship and asked the student not to text her because she “was his teacher as well as being married,” according to the affidavit.
That claim appears to contradict the student turning her in to police in October of 2025, months after he’d graduated from the high school in the Spring.
Crins is scheduled to appear in court March 18 for her arraignment.
A school official confirmed to the New York Post that Crin “no longer works for the district.”
Veteran crime writer Lowell Cauffiel is the author of the New York Times true crime best seller House of Secrets , which documents one of the worst cases of child sex abuse in U.S. history, and nine other crime novels and nonfiction titles. See lowellcauffiel.com for more.
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