Former teacher gets 90 days for sex crime involving former student

A former Halifax-area junior high school teacher has been sentenced to 90 days in jail and a year's probation for a sex charge involving a former student.

Sarah Allt Harnish, who goes by her maiden name Allt, was sentenced Friday morning in Halifax provincial court.

The 90-day sentence, which is to be served on weekends beginning next weekend, was a joint recommendation by the Crown and defence.

Crown prosecutor Cory Roberts said the sentence was appropriate given the case didn't involve sexual touching.

Allt, 38, sat sobbing quietly in the courtroom as the judge and lawyers discussed her sentence.

In addition to jail and probation, Allt must perform 50 hours of community service and pay a victim fine surcharge.

Allt pleaded guilty to a charge of invitation to sexual touching in January 2017. The charge involved a 14-year-old boy.

Inappropriate texts

The court was told how two boys, including the victim, obtained Allt's cell phone number and started texting her. Allt exhanged texts of a sexual nature.

Allt was warned by both the boy's mother and the principal of the school where she was teaching, Five Bridges Junior High in Hubley, to stay away from the boy. When his parents spotted her talking with him on a pathway near the school after the warning, they called police.

In between her weekend stints in jail, Allt is under orders to stay away from the boy, his home, his school and Five Bridges Junior High. She had previously surrendered her teaching licence.

In agreeing to the joint sentencing recommendation, Judge Gregory Lenehan warned Allt that had her behaviour progressed any further, she would have been facing a much tougher sentence.