A Mississippi teacher accused of having sex with a student was denied bail after an investigator withdrew a disturbing allegation in court.
“He (James Donald Hawkins II) said they had made plans to go to Louisiana to escape, and that things were moving faster than they originally 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 the Ocean Springs Walmart, according to the local news outlet.
Hawkins II, a high school physics teacher in the Ocean Springs School District, was arrested Nov. 30 and charged with felony sexual assault, according to inmate records.
Authorities said the investigation is ongoing and more charges could be filed.
“The victim said it started in the spring of 2023, before the end of last school year,” Johnson said in the courtroom during Hawkins II’s probable cause hearing Tuesday.
Hawkins II was a high school physics teacher in the Ocean Springs School District. Facebook
“According to Mr. Hawkins, he admitted that they had sex approximately once a month, including at his house and in her car.”
It is the same house in which he allegedly lives with his wife and young son, the Sun Herald reported.
Bail was set at $150,000, according to inmate records. The judge also ordered him to stay away from the student and her 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 media after his arrest that he had been fired.
School officials said in a statement that the allegations were “disturbing and intolerable.”
“OSSD is deeply concerned about 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 fired from OSSD when district officials were informed of his arrest and subsequent charges by the Jackson County Sheriff’s Department this afternoon.”
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Source: vtt.edu.vn