Decatur City Schools officials are racing to fire Decatur High School teacher Carrie Witt before the start of the 2018-19 school, so they don’t have to give the accused child molester another raise.

Witt, 45, has been on paid leave since she was charged with having sexual relationships with two students – one 17-years-old, the other 18 – during the 2015-16 school year. She was arrested on March 21, 2016, but still received a 4 percent raise as part of the state budget the following month.

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She’s now set to receive another 2.5 percent raise through the 2019 Education Trust Fund budget that goes into effect on Oct. 1, if Decatur City Schools doesn’t terminate her by then, the Decatur Daily reports.

The pay raise would bump Witt’s annual salary to $52,060 as she awaits her criminal case to play out. She’s already collected over $125,000 in salary and benefits since March 2016.

The situation stems from Witt’s complicated legal problems.

Decatur school officials moved to terminate the government, economics and psychology teacher in January 2017, but was blocked by Morgan County Circuit Court Judge Glenn Thompson the next month after her attorney argued the termination proceedings could risk self-incrimination in her criminal case.

Thompson placed an injunction on the district from going forward until after Witt’s criminal case resolved.

In August 2017, Thompson also dismissed the criminal charges against Witt and a teacher’s assistant from Falkville High School, David Thomas Solomon, who is accused of having sex with a 17-year-old female student. Thompson ruled that the state law banning sex between a teacher and student is unconstitutional because it’s overly broad, and criminalizes behavior that would be otherwise legal outside of school.

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Both cases – the district’s move to terminate Witt and her criminal case – were appealed, and the Supreme Court of Alabama ruled on the former in June, allowing Decatur schools to proceed with the termination. Thompson has since lifted his injunction and Superintendent Michael Douglas told the Decatur Daily he scheduled a due process hearing to terminate Witt for Aug. 14, the earliest day possible under a state law that requires advanced notice for tenured union employees.

The Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals then reversed Thompson’s ruling against Alabama’s student-teacher sex law this week, WHNT reports.

The appeals court reinstated the charges and remanded the case back to the circuit court, though Witt’s attorney, Nick Heatherly, is appealing that decision, as well.

Attorneys for Witt and Solomon argue that the state has not legitimate interest in regulating consensual sex acts and doing so violates the Equal Protection Clause of the U.S. Constitution because “it criminalizes a personal relationship between two consenting parties that is not criminalized between other similarly situated parties.”

The appellate court disagreed, finding “there exists a legitimate state interest in prohibiting intimate contact between a teacher and a student” and pointed to a Kansas court decision for the seemingly obvious reason why, the Daily reports.

“Teachers have constant access to students, often in an unsupervised context,” the Kansas court found. “Thus, teachers are in a unique positon to groom or coerce students into exploitive or abusive conduct. It is uncontestable that the state must provide safe school environments for students, which includes preventing the sexual exploitation of students.”

The law, which prohibits teachers from having sex with students under the age of 19, is a 20-year felony that requires offenders to register as a sex offender.