Former Mobile County teacher pleads guilty to sex abuse with student, surrenders teaching certificate (updated)Mary G. Montgomery High School math teacher Alicia Gray, 28, was convicted of having sex with a student under 19 on Friday, Jan. 10, 2014. Mobile County Metro Jail -- A former Mobile County high school teacher on Friday pleaded guilty to having sex with a student, and was sentenced to immediately serve jail time and surrender her teaching certificate. Alicia Gray, 28, accepted a plea deal by prosecutors in Circuit Court Judge Michael Youngpeter's courtroom and was convicted of engaging in a sexual act or deviant sexual intercourse with a student under 19 years old. Youngpeter sentenced Gray to a five-year split sentence, with six months served and five years of probation. As a condition of the probation, Gray will no longer be allowed to be employed with minors, and was required to surrender her teaching certificate to the Alabama Department of Education at once. The former math teacher at Mary G. Montgomery surrendered to the Mobile County Sheriff s Office on Feb. 25, 2013, and was charged with second-degree sodomy, second-degree sexual abuse and being a school employee who has had sexual contact with a student younger than 19. It was alleged that her victim was 14 years old at the time of the incident. Assistant District Attorney Nicki Patterson called the plea deal a "a win-win for everyone." "The primary consideration here was keeping heraway from children," she said. And as a condition of her conviction, Gray will have to register as a sex offender for the rest of her life. "Anytime we can reach a good agreement with adefendant, that does not involve the youth having to testify, we prefer to dothat," Patterson said. Teenagers in cases like this are often reluctant to testify, having to face cross-examination, the defendant and a jury, which is a "very traumatic thing to do," she said. Patterson added that the victim's family was satisfied with the deal, especially considering Gray admitted that she had harmed the victim and others. Gray had been on paid administrative leave with the Mobile County Public School System after her arrest, but she resigned from the school system several months ago, according to Rena Philips, the school system's supervisor of marketing and community partnerships."We regret any circumstance like this, but when the allegations came out, we acted quickly. We deeply regret this ever happened," schools Superintendent Martha Peek said in a statement.Patterson said that detectives interviewed several of Gray's former students and were unable to uncover anyone else who had improper contact with her.Previous reports showed that Gray taught at the high school for at least six years. She taught algebra, math 9 and honors pre-calculus and described herself as "highly qualified in mathematics" on a school profile.She graduated from Mary G. Montgomery about 10 years ago and, outside of school, taught a dance class to young children at a local academy, it said. Her attorney, Christine Hernandez, said that Gray offered a "sincere apology" to the victim and his family in court on Friday, and wanted to take the plea deal "to prevent anyone from having to come in and testify." __________________________________Updated at 3:50 p.m. with comments from attorneys for both sides. Updated at 2 p.m. with statements from the Mobile County school system.
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