SPRINGBORO — A Springboro mother is outraged her daughter’s abuser, John Austin Hopkins, will be out of prison in eight years.
“He’s taken so much away from every family, every little girl, and from this community,” she told News Center 7′s Molly Koweek.
News Center 7 is not identifying the woman to protect her daughter’s identity.
Warren County prosecutors said Hopkins had physical contact with 88 first-grade girls in his Clearcreek Elementary School gym class during the 2018-19 school year.
Twenty-eight of the girls had 36 counts of gross sexual imposition tied to their cases. In March, a common pleas jury convicted Hopkins on 34 of the 36 counts.
“It’s a very emotional case,” Common Pleas Judge Robert Peeler said during the sentencing hearing Wednesday.
Hopkins maintains he did not make sexual advances toward his students.
Prosecutors pushed for a minimum of 27 years in prison. Peeler sentenced Hopkins to eight years.
The Springboro mother told Koweek the sentence was too lenient.
“I just feel like we failed her again. The school system failed her once. I failed her by sending her to school with him, and now the justice system failed her again,” she said.
Her daughter will still be in high school when Hopkins gets out of prison.
“You’re supposed to put a sentence down that protects the community. This is not protecting the community. This is not protecting these girls,” she said. “When all these little girls are 16 years old and out and about in the community, he’s going to be out there with them.”
She started a petition Friday morning. She said she wants to see laws changed so people convicted of gross sexual imposition with multiple minors cannot serve concurrent sentences.
News Center 7 reached out to Peeler for comment, but did not hear back.
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