‘Stalker’ teacher who raped two teens gets 40 years in jail
Janet Barnes was jailed for raping two students and sexually battering a third.
A teacher who stalked one teen and raped two others has been sentenced to 40 years in prison.
Janet Barnes, a 44-year-old former teacher at Pocola High School, pleaded guilty to two counts of rape and one count of sexual battery on Tuesday in Oklahoma.
Despite her 40 year sentence, Barnes will only spend 15 years behind bars.
She was given 15 year sentences for each of her two rape convictions, but she will serve them concurrently. Her 10-year sentence for sexual battery was suspended, and she was given ten years of probation instead, which is contingent on whether she abides by the rules of her release, according to People.
In May, Barnes was indicted after she was accused of having sex with two students at Pocola High School between January 2014 and November 2016. Barnes was also accused of sexually battering a third teen during that time. Her victims were between 16 and 19 years old.
Barnes has a criminal past and has acted inappropriately with students in the past.
In 2010, she sent naked pictures to a student in a different school district over a four-month period and asked him to have sex, according to 5 News.
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Barnes also exposed herself to the student, who alerted police and said he felt Barnes was ‘stalking him.’
She later pleaded guilty to outraging public decency involving a student younger than 16 and was given a nine-month suspended prison sentence.
Barnes pleaded guilty later that year to violating a protection order the teen had taken out against her. She avoided jail time, but was forced to pay $500 in fines.
She will now have to register as a sex offender due to the terms of her latest conviction.