A 52-year-old Tennessee teacher, Tad Cummins, has been arrested and sentenced to 20 years in federal prison for kidnapping a 15-year-old student and raping her in 2017.
The teacher who was sentenced on Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Nashville, after pleading guilty in April 2018 to federal crimes of crossing state lines to have sex with a minor and obstruction of justice, was married and has two daughters of his own, stole his wife’s car and filled a prescription for an erectile dysfunction drug before he set off across the country with the rape victim identified as Elizabeth Thomas.
Tad who was Elizabeth’s health teacher and reportedly took advantage of ‘a broken girl who was lonely, scared and traumatized’, had been suspended from his teaching job at Culleoka Unit School on Feb. 6, 2017, after another student saw him kissing his victim, according to a criminal complaint.
It was gathered that the rape victim began sobbing in court, when the time came to read her impact statement to the judge. A federal prosecutor read her statement aloud instead.
“What you did to me was unspeakable,” the statement read. “You saw a broken girl, who was lonely, scared and traumatized. You made her feel safe and loved because you saw what she needed and made her believe you would be her protector.”
“All you were was a man who just wanted sex, and you used me and manipulated me,” the statement said. “Tad Cummins is a sick, disgusting criminal.”
Cummins who was on the run for weeks with the teenager, reportedly took her from rural Tennessee to a remote cabin in California in 2017. The national manhunt ended when Cummin was arrested at a California cabin.
He was fired the day after an Amber Alert was issued by the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation. His teaching license was later revoked by the Tennessee Board of Education.
