Warren teacher gets to 18 months in prison for sex with student

Staff report

WARREN

Former teacher Eric R. Kline told Judge Ronald Rice on Wednesday he “never wanted to hurt anyone,” but the judge said Kline broke the sacred trust between student and teacher by having sex with one of his students at Warren G. Harding High School.

The girl, 16, came to the Trumbull County Courthouse on Wednesday to speak at Kline’s sentencing on one count of sexual battery but could not do it, her mother said.

“Since this happened, I’ve seen a lot of changes in her,” the girl’s mother said, mentioning anger.

“Tell him it’s hard going through what I’m going through,” her mother said, quoting her daughter.

Kline said he has lived with an “overwhelming amount of regret” over the last eight months. The allegations surfaced in March.

Kline, 26, of Ridgeway Place in Newton Falls, was convicted during a jury trial in common pleas court. Judge Rice sentenced Kline on Wednesday to 18 months in prison.

He said Kline would never again be able to work as a teacher.

Warren schools placed Kline on paid leave after a student observed Kline and the girl alone in Kline’s classroom on the third floor of the high school behaving suspiciously March 14 and reported it, launching an investigation.

Kline was an intervention specialist, co-teaching with a social studies teacher, and helped the special-education students in the class. He was in his first year as a Harding staff member.

Warren police officer Mike Currington, a school-resource officer, testified the victim told him she and Kline engaged in two sex acts in Kline’s classroom.