Heath counselor gets two-year prison sentence

• A former Heath High School guidance counselor pleaded guilty Tuesday to sexual battery.
• Mackenzie Matthews%2C 34%2C was sentenced to two years in prison.
• Matthews will lose her teaching license and be classified as a Tier III sex offender.

NEWARK – Before he handed down the sentence, Judge Thomas Marcelain said he hopes it sends a message: Student-teacher relationships are not OK, and teachers involved will be punished.

Marcelain told Mackenzie Matthews, a former Heath High School guidance counselor, that she was in a position of trust and authority, and that she abused it.

"It has happened too often by people in your position," Marcelain said.

Then he sentenced Matthews to two years in prison. She also will lose her teaching license and be classified as a Tier III sex offender, meaning she'll have to register every 90 days for the rest of her life.

Matthews, 34, was calm throughout the hearing, pleading guilty to a bill of information and only choking up when she delivered a brief statement to the court.

It was her first public court appearance in the case.

"I just want to sincerely apologize to the victim and his family, and to the Heath community and my school system," she said. "I want to apologize to my friends and my family and my children, and especially my husband.

"I want to express the remorse I have for this, and I accept the responsibility for my actions."

Matthews was charged in November with one count of sexual battery, the result of a sexual relationship she had in 2010 with a person who was then a high school senior. She was facing up to five years in prison and a $10,000 fine. Her attorney, Kristin Burkett, requested probation, but Burkett said after the hearing that she and Matthews were prepared for the possibility of a prison sentence.

"I think she's glad to move on to the next step," Burkett said. "There's some anxiety associated to not knowing, so now that she's here, she can move forward."

Matthews was hired at Heath in 2005. She was the district's only guidance counselor and, apart from this incident, her personnel file contained no disciplinary action.

She was put on leave in October and resigned shortly after she was charged.

There is no official state database of teacher-student relationships, but in 2014, Ohio had 35 school employees either accused or convicted of inappropriate relationships with students, according to Drive West Communications, a Texas company that has been tracking the cases using media reports.

Nationwide, there were at least 747 cases this past year, an average of more than two a day, according to Drive West.

Aside from Matthews', there have been two Licking County cases the past two years:

• Sonya Horn, a former Johnstown High School intervention specialist, was sentenced in January 2013 to four years in prison after she was accused of sexually assaulting an 18-year-old developmentally disabled student.

• Anthony Miller, a former Newark City Schools band teacher, was sentenced in August to four years and 10 months in prison for engaging in sexual conduct with at least three former students.

In Matthews' case, the relationship was consensual, and the student was 18 at the time. However, because the sexual conduct occurred before the student graduated, it is illegal in Ohio.

Any sexual conduct occurred off school property, according to Licking County Prosecutor Ken Oswalt.

The victim and his family were not in the courtroom Tuesday — a conscious decision on their part to help protect the victim's identity, Oswalt said.

He said the victim's parents were hoping for no prison time – not for Matthews' sake, but for her children – and the victim himself didn't want to weight in, leaving it completely up to the court.

Matthews may be eligible for judicial release in six months, and Oswalt said he'll wait until it comes up to decide whether that's something his office will oppose. For Matthews' part, it might play in her favor that she pleaded guilty and didn't force the victim to endure a trial and testify, Oswalt said.

"She didn't flinch about pleading, even though she knew prison was a distinct possibility," he said.

"And she's got some lifelong consequences that she'll never get rid of."

hsparling@newarkadvocate.com

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Twitter: @hksparling