|
Allenna Ward
First
| Previous Picture |
Next Picture |
Last |
Thumbnails
Mug Shot
In Court
Teacher imprisoned
for sex with students
By KATRINA A.
GOGGINS
Associated Press
Writer
LAURENS, S.C. --
A former teacher who admitted to
sexual encounters with teen boys was sent to prison Tuesday for six
years despite testimony of a psychiatrist who said Allenna Ward is not
a pedophile, but rather a childlike victim suffering from personality
disorders and a repressed childhood.
Forensic psychiatrist Donna
Schwartz-Watts said Ward, a minister's daughter, lived a sheltered
life under the watchful eyes of her parents but really was a "free
spirit" who never got a chance to break away from her family.
"Whenever she did something wrong
her father immediately knew about it," Schwartz-Watts said. "When she
dated, the only way that she could go out on a date was to sit in the
living room with her parents watching."
Ward, 24, married young and became
a teacher - two steps her family expected. But once she was in the
classroom, her sheltered childhood caused her to take on the
characteristics of a student, Schwartz-Watts said.
Authorities painted Ward's crimes in
a harsher light and said she violated the trust that parents place in
teachers.
"While sex education is a part of
the curriculum, they had no idea that it would be so up close and
personal," prosecutor Jerry Peace said.
Arrest warrants said Ward met 14-
and 15-year-old boys at the school where she taught, and which some of
them attended, as well as at a motel, a park and behind a restaurant.
Police began investigating last year after school officials found a
note believed to have been written by Ward to one of the boys.
The teacher was fired about one
year ago. In September, she pleaded guilty to three counts of
second-degree criminal sexual conduct with a minor and three lewd acts
on a minor.
On Tuesday, Ward tearfully asked
the rural community to forgive her. "I apologize from the depths of my
heart," she said in court.
Some of the victims' families
attended the sentencing but did not speak during the court hearing.
"I just feel like justice has been
served," the sister of one victim said after the hearing. "We're just
glad that it's all over."
The Associated Press does not
normally identify victims of sexual crimes. Ward's lawyer cited the
psychiatric testimony in asking for home imprisonment for his client,
noting she will have to register as a sex offender for the rest of her
life. Attorney Donald Hocker said Ward will be vulnerable to physical
and emotional abuse at the hands of other prisoners.
"It's an awful case with awful
consequences, but Allenna Ward is not an awful woman," Hocker said in
court. Ward was sentenced to 15 years in prison for each of the three
lewd act counts, but the punishments were suspended to six years. She
also was sentenced to six years on each second-degree criminal sexual
conduct count. The sentences are to run concurrently.
Ward is one of two Laurens County
teachers recently sent to prison for sex with students. Wendie Ann
Schweikert, a former elementary school teacher, was sentenced in June
to 10 years in prison after pleading guilty to having sex with an
11-year-old student.
The two cases brought cries of
lingering racism to this county - one of the most conservative in
South Carolina. Both women are white. The boys - six in all - are
black.
|
