A teacher in Northwest Arkansas accused of failing to report the sexual abuse of a young girl has been fired from her job, according to a district official.
Tamy Pershing, 46, had been placed on leave Tuesday, and the superintendent at Arkansas Arts Academy recommended that she be terminated at the board's next meeting.
On Thursday night, the district's board voted unanimously to fire Pershing from her position as a sixth-grade language arts teacher.
Officials at Arkansas Arts Academy in Rogers learned Sept. 1 that Pershing had been arrested on charges of failure to notify by a mandated reporter and of endangering the welfare of a minor.
Pershing is accused of failing to tell authorities that her husband, 54-year-old science-fiction author Douglas Jay Pershing, had reportedly abused a 4-year-old girl at the couple's home in Bella Vista.
Police said Pershing caught her husband on at least one occasion having inappropriate contact with the child, prompting Pershing to tell her husband to "stop and not do it again."
The girl's 2-year-old sister also was part of the sexual abuse investigation out of Henderson, Nev., police said.
The Pershings are set to be arraigned Oct. 9 in Benton County Circuit Court.
State Desk on 09/09/2017