Boy, 13, convicted of sexting his former teacher… here’s why his family says he’s a victim who should NOT be expelled from his school

The family of an autistic teenager facing expulsion after being found guilty of harassing his teacher has accused the Georgia School of trying to label him as a criminal.

AJ Mitchell, 13, was found guilty in January of harassing his former teacher, Jaymie Konvicka, after he bombarded her with hang-up calls and sent her explicit text messages in the days before she contacted police, according to Atlanta News First.

He and his family will go to court Wednesday, where a Fayette County judge will decide whether the teen will be deported or have his record expunged.

“I have never seen so much deliberateness in removing a child from the district,” the family’s attorney, Nicole Hull, said, according to the newspaper.

A crowd of family and friends recently attended a school board meeting, pleading with the district to change course and accusing officials of failing the teen by ignoring his disability.

‘The worst scenario was that he told his therapist that he didn’t want to live anymore. He said he wanted to kill himself,” Oyin Mitchell, his mother, told the newspaper.

AJ, who has autism and other learning disabilities, sometimes struggles with understanding social boundaries.

Hull supported the family’s argument, saying the 13-year-old’s case is evidence of what she called a “school-to-prison pipeline” in which students “graduate straight into our adult criminal justice system.”

AJ Mitchell, 13, who has autism, was found guilty of harassing his former teacher in January

Teacher Jaymie Konvicka called authorities in January after AJ repeatedly hung up on her and sent explicit text messages

AJ’s family, including his mother, accuses school officials of failing the teen by ignoring his disability

A Fayette County judge will decide Wednesday whether AJ will be expelled from school or have his record wiped clean

Georgia has an incarceration rate of about 968 per 100,000 people — the highest in the United States and higher than any other free democratic country, according to a 2023 report from the Prison Policy Initiative.

Many of them are students with special needs, according to the National Council on Disabilities, who are more likely to be punished, suspended and pushed into the justice system.

In 2015, an estimated 85 percent of children in juvenile detention had a disability.

The lawsuit began to unravel earlier this year after Konvicka called authorities about unwanted contact from AJ, though his family says the teacher was fully aware of his problems.

Body camera footage showed a sheriff’s deputy responding to her home and asking her if criminal charges would be filed against the teen, according to Atlanta News First.

“Especially a young person with autism… Do you want to try to press charges here or do you just want documentation?” the police officer asked.

Konvicka eventually filed criminal charges against her former student, while the district continued efforts to officially expel AJ.

However, records showed that Fayette County school officials waited more than three weeks to tell AJ’s parents about the incident, with Hull insisting they were never given a chance to intervene before police were called.

The family’s attorney, Nicole Hull, said AJ’s case is evidence of what she called a “school-to-prison pipeline.”

Georgia has an incarceration rate of about 968 per 100,000 people, the highest in the US.

In 2015, an estimated 85 percent of children in juvenile detention had a disability

Body camera footage showed Konvicka saying she wanted to file criminal charges against AJ instead of documenting a complaint

“My husband and I knew nothing about this,” AJ’s mother told the newspaper. ‘They had already filed the charges. Everything is done.’

During the heated board meeting, AJ’s aunt Latrice Mitchell stated, “This situation has devastated our family.”

“Instead of preparing for his future, AJ is now forced to defend himself in a lawsuit initiated by the school district,” she added.

AJ’s mother has taken to Facebook with increasingly vocal stakes, sharing a video describing the day a sheriff knocked on her door and asked her son why the police were there.

She said that although they were not there to arrest him, officials arrived with documents containing a line underlined in red: “Serve the child.”

‘What you saw was not a moment, it was years in the making. Decisions. Silence. Systems that should have protected a child but didn’t,” she wrote in another post on Sunday.

“The court is next. And no matter what happens, we keep moving forward. If you’ve ever wondered what advocacy really costs, this is it.”

AJ was originally charged with sexual impropriety and harassment involving another teacher in connection with the same incident, but those charges were later dismissed, according to Atlanta News First.

On Wednesday, a Fayette County judge will decide whether to expunge AJ’s record at school.

The teenage boy will then return to court to hear his sentence, following a guilty plea to the harassment charge.

Instead of probation or a harsher sentence, his attorney plans to ask the judge for community service and an essay requirement.