Former teacher sentenced for making proposal to teen

TULSA, Okla. (AP) -- A Tulsa County judge has sentenced a former Jenks middle school teacher to four years in prison plus six years'

probation for making a lewd proposal to a teen-age student.

James Clifton Williams, 52, pleaded guilty Nov. 1 to a charge of proposing sexual contact with a girl who was then 14.

District Judge Jesse Harris on Monday also ordered Williams to pay about $1,700 in fines and court-related costs.

Williams is scheduled to participate in an alcohol treatment program while in prison, and he must enroll in a sex-offender treatment program while on probation.

Harris ordered him to have no unsupervised contact with minors during his probation, and Williams "is not expected to be able to teach again," Assistant District Attorney David Iski said Monday.

Williams had been free on bail for a year, but he was jailed Thursday to await his transfer to the Department of Corrections.

Williams was the girl's civics teacher at Jenks East Middle School.

According to a background report prepared by the Corrections Department, Williams described a telephone call made to the girl in 1999 as "graphic and explicit" and involving "two people who were in love with each other."

He said he "never touched her in a sexual manner. I never manipulated her or solicited from her a sexual response or situation," a probation and parole officer said.

He "was going through the worst time of my life" and that "I exercised poor judgment in dealing with a student," Williams said.

In the report, the girl, who is now 16, said, "I had a great life, and it was brought down by something that was out of control."

Williams was a social studies teacher at Jenks schools for 14 years, and he also coached the middle school track team for part of that time. He was suspended by the district before he ultimately resigned in January before a termination hearing.

According to the DOC background report, Williams admitted that he previously had been admonished and received two letters of reprimand from Jenks schools for two separate, earlier instances involving female students.

Williams also pleaded guilty Nov. 1 to misdemeanor possession of paraphernalia -- a pipe that police said contained marijuana residue -- that was linked to a Nov. 24, 1999, search of his Tulsa residence during an investigation of allegations by the girl to whom he made the lewd proposal.

For that misdemeanor, he received a concurrent one-year jail term that won't add to his time behind bars.