43
Teacher pleads guilty to having sex with students
By Joe Gorman
YOUNGSTOWN
A former Campbell Memorial High School teacher on Thursday tearfully entered guilty pleas to charges she had sex with three high school students.
Shannon Pavlansky-Wojtowicz, 31, of Edinburg, Pa., entered guilty pleas in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court before Judge R. Scott Krichbaum to three third-degree felony counts of sexual battery and single counts of illegal use of a minor in nudity-oriented material or performance and disseminating matter harmful to juveniles, both fifth-degree felonies.
Assistant Prosecutor Jennifer McLaughlin said prosecutors are recommending that Pavlansky-Wojtowicz be sent to prison but will leave the amount of time to be determined by the judge.
McLaughlin said as part of the plea agreement, Pavlansky-Wojtowicz also will have to register as a Tier III sexual offender.
One of Pavlansky-Wojtowicz’s two lawyers, Damian Billak, told the judge he had been in negotiations with prosecutors for such a plea since before the former teacher was indicted in May by a grand jury.
The sexual-battery charges accuse her of having sex with a 17-year-old student from November 2014 to January; with another 17-year-old student from Nov. 1, 2013, to May 31, 2014; and a third 17-year-old student from Sept. 1, 2011, to Oct. 31, 2011.
The charges include specifications she was acting as a teacher or employee of the Campbell school district at the time of the offenses.
The other charges relate to inappropriate text messages she purportedly exchanged with the students.
Pavlansky-Wojtowicz was placed on leave in January after allegations arose that she exchanged inappropriate text messages with a student in December and January. She later resigned.
Investigations involving Pavlansky-Wojtowicz stretch back to 2012 and include a separate case in which she was being harassed by a student who threatened to expose her affairs.
Since then, a Campbell police officer was demoted and suspended for his conduct in handling that case, a high school principal was placed on leave and then brought back, and the investigation had to be taken over by the county sheriff’s office and the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation.