Teacher accused of having sex with eight pupils on school baseball team faces 20 years in jail

A teacher has been accused of having sex with eight members of a school baseball team.

Julie Pritchett began a relationship with a 15-year-old boy in February. The 34-year-old married teacher later approached other members of the team for sex.

The incidents allegedly took place both on school premises and at the boys' homes while their parents were out.

She was discovered when one of the 15-year-old boys at the school, in the town of Trussville,  Alabama, told his parents. They alerted the police.

Pritchett, who taught at Clay-Chalkville Middle School, has been charged with two counts of sodomy and one count of sexual abuse.

Some of the boys involved are over the age of consent and are not co-operating with police.

Police spokesman Sgt Christian said: 'It sounds like she has some serious issues to work through, but that will never excuse what she has done.'

He described her as a 'sexual predator'.

'When you have eight victims, all young people, all students, that she had great influence on, I don't think it's wrong to characterise her that way,' he said.

Christian said Pritchett, who was a special education teacher and a sponsor of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes club at the middle school, resigned from her tenured teaching position last month after she learned an investigation was under way.

The investigation began May 2 when a parent filed a complaint with the sheriff's office claiming his son was sexually abused by one of the school's teachers.

Jefferson County school board lawyer Burgin Kent said Pritchett was placed on leave as soon as school officials heard the allegations. They launched their own investigation and then notified the sheriff's office and the Department of Human Resources.

Kent said school officials also assured parents of those involved that they were doing everything they could to get to the bottom of the allegations.

Scandal-hit: Clay-Chalkville Middle School in Trussville, Alabama

"It was an unfortunate situation," Kent said.

Sheriff's investigators identified eight male students who attend Clay-Chalkville High School with whom Pritchett is alleged to have had sexual relations, Christian said.

Pritchett was the sponsor for the high school's Diamond Dolls, the hostesses for the baseball team. It was through that position, Christian said, that she came into contact with some of her former students who were involved in the high school sports program.

Christian said Pritchett started a sexual relationship with a 15-year-old former student. That relationship led to sex acts with his friends, Christian said.

The sex acts were initiated by Pritchett, who used several methods of approaching the boys, Christian said. Some of the acts took place on the school's campus and others at the homes of the victims.

Phone records were subpoenaed and support the statements of the victims and witnesses, authorities said.

She faces 20 years in jail if convicted of the sex abuse offences.