JACKSON, MI – A former Napoleon High School teacher has pleaded no contest to second-degree criminal sexual conduct with a student.

Jason Cunningham, 47, and a woman, who is not being named because of the nature of the case, had sex and oral sex several times while she was a Napoleon High School senior and after she graduated in 2009, according to court records.

Cunningham was originally charged with third-degree criminal sexual conduct on Sept. 5, 2018. On Friday, May 17, he took a plea deal before Circuit Judge Thomas Wilson.

The woman, now 27, testified during Cunningham’s October 2018 preliminary examination that she had known Cunningham, her music teacher, since she was a young girl and that she had babysat for his children.

A sexual relationship began in May 2009, when she was 17 years old, the woman testified. Cunningham, who was married at the time, would’ve been 37.

The woman testified that in the days before the two had sex, they searched the age of consent for sex in Michigan on his office computer. They also searched the felony they were breaking - criminal sexual conduct.

After she graduated in late May 2009, the woman said she returned to the school to have sex with Cunningham in the band room. She said their relationship continued until he ended it in June 2012.

Cunningham resigned from Napoleon High School in 2016 for a job in the Western School District, which was closer to his home. He resigned from Western Middle School in July 2018, citing personal reasons, as previously reported.

Cunningham was given a $5,000 personal recognizance bond in September 2018, which he is still out on.

His sentencing is scheduled for 9 a.m. July 18. Second-degree CSC is a felony punishable by up to 15 years in prison.