Ex-Teacher Accused of Having Sex with Student

Karen Robbins

By WLTX-TV Columbia

LAURENS COUNTY, SC -- Another employee who once worked for the Laurens County school system is accused of having sex with a student.

Karen Robbins, 49, has been arrested by Clinton police on three counts of a lewd act on a child, and three counts of criminal sexual conduct with a child.

Robbins used to work for the Laurens County school district.

WSPA-TV reports the incidents took place back in 2005. Arrest warrants claim the woman has sex with the teen victim at her house and in her car. The incidents happened over a three-month period while she was employed at the Thornwell School.

The school's president, Robert Stansell, told WSPA-TV, "I'm dumbfounded. I'm stunned. I'm offended."

The woman taught special education for a decade at Thornwell, and left the school when it closed in 2006. She then taught at Bell Street Middle School until August of this year.

Stansell told WSPA-TV, "She was a good teacher, and a trusted member of our academic team. That's what makes the devastation so profound, I think."

Robbins is free on bond.

Earlier this month, another former Bell Street Middle teacher, Allenna Ward, pleaded guilty to three counts of second-degreee criminal sexual conduct, and three counts of committing a lewd act on a minor. She admitted to having sex with five boys.