BATTLE CREEK, Mich. - A former Marshall teacher and assistant coach was sentenced to prison Monday after having a sexual relationship with a student.
"There is no doubt in my mind that you are a predator and preyed on this child and injured her far beyond her bodily injuries," Calhoun County Circuit Court John Hallacy told Jason Bushong.
Then Hallacy sentenced Bushong, 34, to a term of seven to 30 years in prison for his no contest plea in October to first-degree criminal sexual conduct.
Investigators from the Marshall Police Department and the Calhoun County Sheriff Department said Bushong groomed the girl when she was 15 and carried on a months-long sexual relationship, having sex with her multiple times in his car, his home and the home of his parents.
The girl, now 16, told the judge she spent hours talking with Bushong and said he promised a life together, a big wedding and a daughter.
"He even talked about the dress she would wear on her first birthday," the girl told the judge. "He made a false world to get me to fall for him. All he ever said were lies to pleasure himself so he could get off knowing he had children worshiping him."
Investigators said rumors about the relationship had been circulating for months but that police only had evidence after the girl's mother found her daughter and Bushong in a car in March and he confessed to officers.
"He is remorseful for what he has done," defense attorney J. Thomas Schaeffer said, "and for whatever harm he may have brought upon the juvenile and her family. The relationship was that he truly cared for this person."
Bushong told the judge, "I never meant and would never purposely cause harm to anyone. I wish there was a way for my loved ones to see into my heart because there are not words there to express the things I feel and the things I want them to know.
"My strong feelings and emotions led to very poor judgments and people I care about are deeply affected. Saying sorry for those things is not a big enough word."
He said he was sorry for the pain to his family, including his now former wife and two young sons.
The young girl, who is not named by the Enquirer because she is a victim of sexual assault, said she has been ostracized by her peers and estranged from her sister, and that Bushong has caused pain to others who viewed the social studies and assistant baseball and football coach as a role model.
"You are sick and you infected the rest of us," the girl said.
Jason Bushong with his attorney, J. Thomas Schaeffer, right, during the sentencing on Monday. (Photo: Trace Christenson/The Enqurier)
She told the judge she has spent weeks crying and was in the hospital twice for suicide attempts.
"Every night my mom called the jail just so I could hear the guards say you are still locked up," she said. "I refused to sleep for weeks because I was afraid I would see you in my dreams."
After listening to the girl, Prosecutor David Gilbert said there was nothing more he could say.
Hallacy said not only did Bushong damage the girl and others in the school but "you undermined the trust people have in the public school system which has its own difficulty without you. It is something I can't fix but something you have impacted so many good people who work so hard to help our kids."
The girl said Bushong attempted to groom other young girls and told the judge he should go to prison.
"Jason Todd Bushong deserves to be put away for a long time," she said. "He is an abuser who used his job as a teacher to prey upon girls who don't understand."
Contact Trace Christenson at 269-966-0685 or tchrst@battlecreekenquirer.com. Follow him on Twitter: @TSChristenson
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