Published: Thursday, Dec. 17, 2009 / Updated: Friday, Dec. 18, 2009 05:43 AM

Former Indian Land teacher pleads guilty to sex charges with student

INDIAN LAND -- Former Indian Land Middle School teacher Jonathan Jens likely won't see the inside of a public school classroom again.

Jens pleaded guilty Wednesday to one count of assault and battery of a high and aggravated nature in a case involving a student.

Jens received a 10-year suspended sentence including three years in prison and five years of probation. He is required to register as a sex offender and is prohibited from having any contact with the victim or the victim's family. Jens, 36, of Fort Mill, was charged in June with three felony counts of performing a lewd act on a child under the age of 16.

The charges followed an investigation by Lancaster County Sheriff's Office deputies who said a 12-year-old Indian Land Middle School student told them she had a relationship with the teacher. Two of the felony counts were dismissed, while the third was reduced to assault and battery of a high and aggravated nature. The sentence was a negotiated plea, County Solicitor Doug Barfield said.

The reduction in the charges was agreeable to the family of the victim, according to attorney Harold Staley, who represented them in court Wednesday.

The family hoped to avoid a criminal trial in order to keep the victim from having to testify, Staley said.

“[The family] said ‘look, we're accepting this sentence and the pleading down to lesser crime, but at the same time it's necessary that he will be on the sex offender registry,'” Staley said. “They wanted to be sure this followed him and that he never was in a classroom again.”

Jens admitted in court yesterday to touching the student, Public Defender Mike Lifsey said.

“He admitted his guilt and apologized for what he has done,” Lifsey said.

Lifsey said there are no other charges pending against Jens.

Jens' criminal record prior to the June arrest showed only a DUI conviction in the late 1990s, Barfield said.

According to a Lancaster County Sheriff's Office report, the girl ran away after her parents questioned her about "some possible inappropriate activities between [the girl] and a teacher at Indian Land Middle School."

Information about an alleged relationship between the girl and a teacher at her school surfaced in notes the girl passed to a friend at church, according to the report. Police said when the girl was questioned, she answered in writing that in one incident, Jens hugged and kissed her in a classroom during a lunch break.

In another incident, on May 27, according to the report, Jens "did kiss the victim upon the mouth/lips and inside of her mouth with his tongue. [Jens] also kissed the victim on her neck, removed her shirt and fondled her breast and placed his hands inside of her pants and fondled her buttocks while lying on a sleeping bag in a wooded area near her home between 12:30 a.m. and 4:30 a.m."

“This child thought the man was in love with her,” Staley said.

The family has since moved away from Indian Land.

“In small community, by the end of the day, that stuff is out and around and after his arrest every one at school knew the teacher and figured out who the student was,” Staley said. “Other children in the family were hearing stuff. There was just no way to put this behind them and move forward because it was being brought up every day.”

Jens was a world geography teacher and the coach of the boys basketball team. His contracted with the Lancaster County School District was terminated this past summer before the new school year started, according to Bryan Vaughn, the district's director of safety and transportation. Vaughn also said Jens' license to teach in South Carolina has been revoked.

Housed at the county jail since his arrest, Jens was remanded to state custody shortly after he was sentenced.