Teacher found guilty of having sex with student in classroom, gets sentenced to just one year in jail
An ex-Ohio middle school teacher has been found guilty of having sexual intercourse with a 14-year-old student she used to teach. She was sentenced on May 30 to a year in jail and five months of probation after.
Timothy O'Connell, the Montgomery County Common Pleas Judge, sentenced 32-year-old Jessica Langford for three of the charges for sexual battery. The former teacher and the student were reported to have had sexual intercourse inside a classroom, at the Miamisburg Middle School, which was locked.
Langford is a married mother of one child from Centerville. She had taught mathematics for nine years at the school till the day she resigned from her position as teacher in the end of May because the sexual misconduct allegations became public.
She told the judge in court, "There isn't a day goes by that I don't wish I could do things differently. I know I am fully responsible." The 14-year-old victim's father asked that Langford be given the maximum sentence for violating his child, which is around 15 years in jail.
He said in court, "She was entrusted with the care of the children and students and threw it away for her own sexual gratification."
The man also said that his father had to go through the stress and trauma that comes with being in a trial and that he is now being treated differently by everyone in his school.
The father said, "He feels embarrassed and alone. He's bullied constantly at school and feels helpless and alone."
The jury reached the verdict for Langford on April 13 after they deliberated for five hours that was spread out across two days. Langford was charged with six counts of sexual battery and unlawful sexual conduct with a minor.
She was convicted of three of these charges. The victim, who is now 15 years old, recalled the sexual encounter that he had with Langford for the court. The incident took place on the last day of school in May 2017 and it happened inside a locked classroom at the Miamisburg Middle School.
According to a report by WHIO, the teen told the jury in the court: "We started kissing, she went in for a kiss and it escalated from there."
The teen told the court that he and Langford had then engaged in multiple sexual acts that included intercourse and oral sex. They were in the locked classroom for about 20 to 30 minutes before the principal knocked on the door and they stopped abruptly.
Allegedly, Langford told her student to hide underneath a table and then she left with the principal. She came back later and then allegedly told the student to "stick to the story" and maintain that he was in the room stacking desks.
The boy explained to the jury about the affair with Langford, "It felt uncomfortable...I thought it was wrong."
In the teen's testimony that was presented earlier in the trial, he had said that he and Langford had connected with each other on Snapchat.
When his teacher had allegedly asked him why he was reaching out to her, he had replied that he wanted to have sex with her. The defense in the court immediately questioned the boy's credibility and they even pointed out that he had repeatedly denied having sex with Langford last year.
The teen then explained to the court that he had lied in the beginning about the relationship he had with his former teacher because he did not want his teenage girlfriend to find out about the affair and break up with him.