She says she is grateful they hired her.
A former high school teacher in Maine is now working as a waitress after she was wrongly accused of having sex with a student.
Jill LaMontagne, a married mother of two, was a health teacher at Kennebunk High School.
Last year, the 30-year-old’s world was shaken after a 17-year-old student came forward to claim they had engaged in a sexual relationship while she was tutoring him.
She was forced to resign and was criminally charged with 14 offenses.
“The way people in public interpret that is like, 'Oh, she's gotta to be guilty, 14 counts,'” she told Inside Edition.
At the trial, the teen testified that he and LaMontagne had sex in her classroom and home. But the jury questioned his credibility, and after deliberating for just two hours, they returned with a not guilty verdict.
“I had to hold it in, if needed to hear all 14 before I could release the floodgates,” she said of her acquittal and vindication.
Despite her acquittal in the case, LaMontagne says she's had a difficult time finding a job. A local diner is the only place that would hire her.
“I had never even gotten a speeding ticket, and now I have a mugshot in our local newspaper,” she said.
LaMontagne now says she doesn't know whether she will ever return to teaching. In the meantime, she's serving coffee at the local diner, and is grateful they hired her.
The school said in a statement that while Mrs. LaMontage had been acquitted of the criminal charges, they still feel she broke school policy when she shared texts with the student.
She says the texts were sent to help the student with emotional problems and contained nothing inappropriate.
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