Former teacher to serve 2 years behind bars for sex charges

BLUFFTON, Ind. (WANE) - Tracey Pace, a former Bluffton High School teacher, was sentenced Monday morning in Wells Circuit Court for one count each of Sexual Misconduct with a Minor, a C felony, and Dissemination of Material Harmful to a Minor, a D felony that she pled guilty to in July.

According to the Wells County Circuit Court Clerk, Pace will serve two years behind bars and four years on probation.

For the Sexual Misconduct charge, Pace was sentenced to four years in jail, with two years suspended plus 4 years probation.  For the Dissemination of Material charge, she was sentenced to one year.  The sentences are to be served concurrently or at the same time. 

Investigators said that between February 1 and March 19, 2007, Pace was involved in deviate sexual conduct with a child between the ages of 14 and 16; between January 1 and January 31, 2007 Pace performed or submitted to fondling or touching with the intent to arouse or satisfy sexual desires of the child or herself; and between January 1 and February 28, 2007, Pace knowingly dispersed matter with pornographic photographs harmful to minors.

According to the Bluffton-Harrison Superintendent, Wayne Barker, Pace was hired as a culinary arts teacher on May 27, 2008. The acts Pace is accused of occurred prior to her being employed as a teacher for Bluffton-Harrison and these allegations do not involve current or former students of Bluffton-Harrison Schools.

Barker said the school district did not know about these acts when it hired Pace.