A Mississippi teacher accused of having sex with a student has been denied bond after investigators dropped troubling charges in court.
“He (James Donald Hawkins II) said that they had made plans to go to Louisiana to elope, and things moved faster than they expected,” Jackson County Sheriff’s Capt. Kristen Johnson testified, according to WLOX.
Johnson said during his testimony that Hawkins II, 38, had admitted to having sex with the 17-year-old student at his home and in the parking lot of an Ocean Springs Walmart, according to local news outlets.
Hawkins II, a high school physics teacher in the Ocean Springs school district, was arrested Nov. 30 and charged with a sex crime, according to inmate records.
Law enforcement said that the investigation is ongoing and more charges may be filed.
“The victim said that it started in the spring of 2023 before the last school year ended,” Johnson said in the courtroom during Hawkins II’s probable cause hearing on Tuesday.
Hawkins II is a high school physics teacher in the Ocean Springs school district. Facebook
“According to Mr. Hawkins, he admitted they had sex about once a month, including at his house and in his car.”
It is the same house he reportedly lives in with his wife and their young child, the Sun Herald reported.
The bond was set at $150,000, according to inmate records. The judge also ordered him to stay away from the student and his family.
Hawkins II’s attorney, Cameron McCormick, and the school district did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment, but the school district told local news outlets after his arrest that he had been fired.
School officials said in a statement that the allegations were “disturbing and unacceptable.”
“OSSD is deeply troubled by the arrest and charges announced today by the Jackson County Sheriff’s Department involving one of our teachers,” the school district said in a statement.
“James Hawkins was terminated from OSSD when county officials were notified of his arrest and subsequent charges by the Jackson County Sheriff’s Department this afternoon.”
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
