Former Baltimore County teacher sentenced to 3 years for sexual relationship with student

Maggie Trovato, The Baltimore Sun on Sep 18, 2026

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BALTIMORE — A former Baltimore County middle school teacher was sentenced Friday to nine years with all but three years suspended after pleading guilty in August to nine fourth-degree sex offense charges involving her student.

Sydnie Haywood, 34, was indicted last year in Baltimore County and Baltimore City after she was accused of having a yearslong relationship with a then-14 and 15-year-old student, 13 years her junior, at Woodlawn Middle School.

Friday, Baltimore County Circuit Judge Dennis Robinson Jr. handed down the active three-year sentence. He gave Haywood credit for the more than a year she’s served since her arrest.

“In an ideal world, kids feel safest at home,” Robinson said before handing down the sentence. “School should be a close second.”

Haywood has already been sentenced for her case in Baltimore City. In March, a Baltimore City Circuit judge handed Haywood a nine-month and 12-day sentence after she pleaded guilty to one fourth-degree sex offense charge.

During Haywood’s sentencing in the county on Friday, Robinson also ordered that Haywood receive five years of supervision, register as a Tier One sex offender, have no contact with the victim or the victim’s immediate family, and have no unsupervised contact with children under the age of 18.

Robinson said the last condition did not apply to Haywood’s two children.

According to charging documents, Haywood, who taught Spanish at the Gwynn Oak school between August 2018 and June 2020, began messaging the student on social media in March 2020, at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. Investigators said the two had their first sexual encounter months later when summer break began, and Haywood was no longer the student’s teacher.

Charging documents state the pair began meeting for sex at the teacher’s Baltimore home, as well as in her car.

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