Educator Free After Serving 1 Year for Child Molestation
The founder of the Foxfire education program wasted no time leaving jail on Friday after serving a one-year term for child molestation.
Elliott Wigginton left Rabun County Jail shortly after midnight.
“When the sun comes up in the morning, I want to be someplace where I can see it,” Wigginton said outside the jail.
Wigginton was “bouncing off the walls” Thursday, jailers said.
Wigginton said he has not decided where he will settle now that he is free.
The teacher came to Georgia in 1966 from Cornell University. He devised an English composition program in which students interviewed elders for stories about Appalachian lore.
Foxfire became a national education model, and Wigginton was named Georgia’s teacher of the year for 1987.
He was accused of fondling a boy at his cabin last year and pleaded guilty. Had he gone to trial, prosecutors said they would have presented 17 former students to testify that Wigginton made sexual advances toward them.
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