Arkansas Teacher Gets 50 Years in Child Sex Case - Updated

(Magnolia, Arkansas) Forty-seven-year-old former teacher Donna Lou Sanders pleaded guilty earlier today to five counts of permitting abuse of a minor, charges filed in two different Arkansas counties, Union and Columbia.

As a result, Sanders was sentenced by Circuit Judge Larry Chandler to 50 years in prison, 10 years for each count.

Sanders resigned April 23 from her teaching job, the same day she was arrested after a parent had earlier notified the school superintendent of the allegations.

Prosecutors say she set the girls up to have sex in a motel room and in the back seat of her car.

Reporting has been somewhat sketchy on the Sanders case so we really don't know what she was thinking. Never before have I heard of a teacher taking young girls out of class for purposes of prostituting them. Sanders must have known that she would never get away with it.

Not only that but her husband, as assistant principal, was in charge of school discipline. What in the world was she thinking?

Something is very strange about the case. I tend to believe she committed the offenses with a desire to get caught.


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Teacher Accused of Taking Girls to Motel for Sex
[Previous 4/28/08 post]
(Magnolia, Arkansas) A 46-year-old special education teacher at Magnolia Junior High School, Donna Lou Sanders, was arrested this past week for allegedly taking 12- and 13-year-old students to motels to engage in sex.

Police allege that Sanders rented motel rooms in El Dorado for the girls, left them overnight, and returned the next day and picked them up.

She also provided alcoholic beverages to the juveniles, Gorum said. The incidents took place over seven months, beginning in September, all in Union County. Magnolia is in Columbia County.

Sanders was charged with 12 counts of permitting abuse of a minor and 12 counts of accomplice to rape. She was booked into custody at the Columbia County Jail with bond set at $100,000.

Sanders resigned from her position with the school system on Wednesday. Her husband, Magnolia High School asst. principal Terry Sanders has not been accused in the case.