Teacher used grades to coerce student into sex, says lawsuit

CHARLESTON, S.C. (AP)  – A South Carolina math teacher is accused of lowering a student’s grade because he stopped having sex with her.

The young man and his mother are suing the Charleston County School District for negligence.

The Post and Courier reports that 27-year-old Jennifer Olajire-Aro allegedly “encouraged and coerced” her student, then 17, into having sex with her multiple times. The civil lawsuit filed last week says the teacher would remind him that she controlled his grade if he tried to fend off her advances.

The lawsuit says he told his mother after the teacher lowered his grade from a 98 to 89 when he refused her in December. She was arrested that month. Her criminal case is pending.

A schools spokesman said the district hadn’t seen the lawsuit yet.