South Carolina English teacher allegedly had sex with 16-year-old student

Ns News Online Desk:  A South Carolina high school teacher was arrested after allegedly having sex with a 16-year-old student, authorities said Monday.

Anna Elizabeth Jeanette Patton, 22, lured the teenager by sending several steamy messages and nude photos via text and social media over three months, between Oct. 1, 2019 and Jan. 11, according to arrests warrants from the Darlington County Sheriff’s Office. She “did knowingly communicate with the juvenile victim … through social media and text messaging for the purpose of enticing the victim to engage in sexual activities,” according to the warrant, reported by local outlet SCNow.

The pair allegedly had sex on multiple occasions. A Darlington County Sheriff’s Office spokesperson said she couldn’t reveal the gender of the alleged victim.

Patton — an English teacher at Lamar High School — was charged with sexual battery with a student 16 to 17 years of age, disseminating obscene material to a person under 18 years, and criminal solicitation of a minor. She was placed on administrative leave, pending an investigation, Audrey Childers, a spokesperson for the Darlington County School District said in a statement to SCNow.

Patton was released on $7,500 bond at her initial court appearance on Monday and ordered not to contact the victim or the victim’s family and not to return to school grounds, public records show. She is due back in court on May 6. A 2017 article in The Patriot, the student newspaper at Francis Marion University, where Patton graduated from, describes her as the single mother of a boy.