A creepy South Carolina “Teacher of the Year” who admitted to bombarding an 11-year-old student with more than 60 love letters will only have to serve probation.
Dylan Robert Dukes, 27, was handed the slap on the wrist sentence after pleading guilty last week to harassing the young girl with the notes, gifts and unwanted hugs when she was in his class at Starr Elementary School last year, WSAZ reported.
At one point, Dukes even gave the girl a personalized box with a letter for each day of week for the entire summer break.
When the girl’s family eventually pulled her from the school, the obsessed teacher went as far as joining her local church.
Cops later found scores of photos of the girl stashed inside Dukes’ desk when they searched his classroom.
The photographs weren’t sexual in nature, police acknowledged at the time.
“My child has had to endure moments of uncomfortability in places like church, school and sports, where my child should be comfortable and able to enjoy being a child,” the girl’s mom told one of his court hearings last year.
“He started attending our church,” she added. “I now realize that this access to my child had continued to grow his obsession.”
The Anderson County Sheriff’s Office believed they thwarted the stalking before it developed into anything even more sinister.
“Detectives were able to stop the harassment and stalking before it became anything physical – which the juvenile was in fear of,” the sheriff’s office said at the time.
Dukes, who was initially arrested on stalking charges, pleaded guilty to first-degree harassment last week. He was sentenced to three years in jail, which was suspended to five years of probation.
Under the terms of his plea deal, Dukes has to attend mental health counseling, give up his teaching certificate and adhere to a permanent restraining order that bans any contact with the girl.
Dukes, who was placed on administrative leave when he was first arrested, was named the school’s 2023–2024 Teacher of the Year.
His current status at the school wasn’t immediately known.
