Mississippi teacher James Donald Hawkins II plotted to take student across state lines to elope: report

A Mississippi teacher accused of having sex with a student was denied bond after an investigator dropped a disturbing accusation in court.

“He (James Donald Hawkins II) said that they had made plans to go to Louisiana to elope, and things were moving faster than they originally expected,” Jackson County Sheriff Captain Kristen Johnson testified, according to WLOX.

Johnson said during her testimony that Hawkins II, 38, had admitted to having sex with the 17-year-old student at his home and in the parking lot of the Ocean Springs Walmart, according to the local news outlet. 

Hawkins II, a high school physics teacher in the Ocean Springs school district, was arrested on Nov. 30 and charged with felony sexual battery, according to inmate records. 

Law enforcement said that the investigation is ongoing and that more charges could be filed. 

“The victim said that it began in the springtime of 2023 before the last school year ended,” Johnson told the courtroom during Hawkins II’s probable cause hearing on Tuesday.

“According to Mr. Hawkins, he admitted they had sex approximately one time a month, including at his house and in her car.”

It’s the same home he reportedly lives in with his wife and their toddler, the Sun Herald reported.

The bond was set at $150,000, according to inmate records. The judge also ordered him to stay away from the student and her family. 

Hawkins II’s lawyer, Cameron McCormick, and the school district didn’t immediately return Fox News Digital’s request for comment, but the school district told local news outlets after his arrest that he had been fired.

School officials said in a statement that the accusations were “disturbing and intolerable.”

“OSSD is deeply troubled by the arrest and charges announced today by the Jackson County Sheriff’s Department involving one of our teachers,” the school district said in a statement. 

“James Hawkins was terminated from OSSD when district officials were informed of his arrest and subsequent charges by the Jackson County Sheriff’s Department this evening.”