Police find former teacher in back seat of car with boy

A former Williston Middle School teacher is in hot water after police found her in the back seat of a car with a fifteen-year-old boy early Saturday morning.

Jessica Wishnask worked at Williston for two years before recently resigning. According to New Hanover County Schools, Jessica Wishnask left in December 2008, for “personal” reasons.

Police found the 27-year-old former 7th grade Williston teacher and a fifteen-year-old boy in the 300 block of Market Street around 4:30 Saturday morning.

This comes as a shock to New Hanover County School officials who pride themselves on their extensive background checks for all their employees. “We do everything we can to make sure there are no indicators at all that the person would be a danger to a student,” said NHC Assistant Superintendent John Welmers.

Neighbors said Jessica Wishnask moved out of a home on Amber Pines Drive in Leland about three months ago.

She and her husband have a young daughter together, and are in the middle of a separation.

According to the State Board of Education, she is a licensed teacher, but if the 15-year-old turns out to have been one of her students, the State Ethics Commission has the power to revoke her license.

After more than 30 years working in education, Assistant Superintendent John Welmers said incidents like this are rare. “Anytime a student is involved in anything like this, that a student can be impacted by the actions of a teacher, we also hate it for the teacher, and what is she doing with her life and her personal career, so we were all sad to hear it.”