Teacher Allenna Ward Sent to Prison For Sex With Students

Allenna Ward, a former middle school teacher in Laurens County, SC, was sent to prison for six years Tuesday for having sexual encounters with five teenage boys.

Ward, 24, met 14- and 15-year-old boys at the school where she taught as well as at a motel, a park and behind a restaurant, according to authorities.

Police began investigating last year after school officials found a note believed to have been written by Ward to one of the boys. Several of the victims were students at Bell Street Middle School in Clinton, where Ward taught. She was fired about a year ago.

Ward pleaded guilty in September to three counts of second-degree criminal sexual conduct with a minor and three lewd acts on a minor.

Ward was sentenced Tuesday to 15 years in prison for each lewd act count, 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.

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