A High School Teacher Was Jailed For Claiming That Having Sex With Her Students Was Her Constitutional Right

WHO IS CARRIE WITT

• Carrie Witt was a former High School teacher in Alabama.
• She taught history, psychology and social studies while working as a coach for the varsity girl’s golf team and junior varsity cheerleading at Decatur High School.
• She was drawn to into a five-year old legal saga after being accused of having physical relationships with her students in 2016.

BACKGROUND OF THE CASE

• In 2017, she was acquitted after her lawyer proved that it was unconstitutional to hold that it made a felony for a school employee to have sex with any student below 19 years of age.
• There was also no evidence that she used her position to force the two students to have physical relations.
• Witt claimed that prosecuting her just because she was a school employee violated her 14th Amendment containing Right to Privacy and equal protection.

PRESENT SCENARIO

• An appeal was filed by the prosecutors in the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals.
• They reversed the previous ruling and reinstated the charges against Witt.
• She argued that it was her constitutional right to have sex.
• But she was served with a ten year sentence.

WITT PLEADED GUILTY

• Just hours before the scheduled trial, Witt pleaded guilty.
• She offered a tearful apology for her actions and said that she was ashamed.
• She didn’t pursue the federal appeal because this case took a toll on her emotionally and financially.
• So she has to be spending more one and half years in the jail and then 18 months in a community correction program.
• The rest of her time will be served on probation.
• In addition to that, Witt must also register as a sex offender.

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