DECATUR, Ala. 47-year-old Carrie Witt was a teacher at Decatur High School in Decatur, Alabama, and was arrested in 2016 for allegedly having sex with two students, aged 17 and 18. She was sentenced to 10 years, however, she will only have to spend 18 months in that prison and then 18 months in a community corrections program before serving the remainder of her sentence on probation.
Her lawyers argued that since Alabama’s age of consent is 16, Witt was within her constitutional rights to have sex with those students.
They also argued that Alabama’s state laws that prevent teachers from having sex with their students are “unconstitutional”.
The judge refused to dismiss the case, she pleaded guilty hours before her trial was set to begin.
“I’m ashamed,” she told the judge, the Decatur Daily reports. “I don’t think I’ve ever been more ashamed of myself.”
In exchange for her plea, Morgan County prosecutors agreed to drop a second charge against Witt, who was initially accused of having sex with two boys, ages 17 and 18, back in 2016.
Witt taught history, psychology and social studies, as well as coaching the varsity girls’ golf team and and junior varsity cheerleading at Decatur High School
In 2017, a judge dismissed the charges against Witt after her lawyers successfully argued that a 2010 law, that made it a felony for a school employee to have sex with a student under 19 years old, was unconstitutional.