For relationship with student, former teacher gets probation

The former teacher who had a sexual relationship with a teen was sentenced Feb.

8 to a year of community control.

Sarah

N. Conway,

25, of Sheffield Lake, pleaded guilty to an amended indictment of disseminating matter harmful to a juvenile, a misdemeanor, as part of a plea agreement with prosecutors.

Conway surrendered her social worker’s certificate and has agreed to never get a teaching certificate in Ohio.

Officials will place her on a watch list to ensure she does not attempt to teach again, Lorain County Prosecutor Dennis Will said.

“So, she will no longer be allowed to go into any type of school situation and she will no longer be a counselor,” Will said.

In return, prosecutors dismissed several counts of sexual battery.

Police said they were alerted to the relationship, which began when the boy was 17 years old, when Conway filed a harassment complaint against the student March 21, 2018.

She was a teacher at Willow Creek Positive Education Program, 1600 Durkee Road in Eaton Township, where the then-18-year-old student attended, police said.

While making the complaint, she shared with police that she was in a sexual relationship with the boy and during the investigation, officers learned the relationship had begun while he was underage.

According to police, text messages revealed there was a break in Conway and the victim’s relationship and that sexual activity and harassment had occurred.

Will said the victim was not Conway’s student, but he had helped in one of the classes where she was teaching grammar.

The victim had been threatening Conway, but he was not charged, Will said.

“Because at this point, she’s not going to have contact with him, he no longer has any contact with her since this first was reported to the police,” the prosecutor said. “I don’t anticipate any additional charges anywhere.”

Speaking about the reason for the agreement, Will said the priority was to keep Conway out of a position where she could repeat the same crime.

“If we can get her out of the stream of being involved with juveniles, that’s going to have a bigger impact than anything else,” he said.

The plea and sentence guarantees that Conway will not try to engage in getting a teaching certificate ever again, Will said.

LORAIN

“So, she will no longer be allowed to go into any type of school situation and she will no longer be a counselor.” — Lorain County Prosecutor Dennis Will

Conway