Teacher of the Year finalist refused to cut ties with student she had sex with — even after being charged
A Colorado teacher who had been a finalist for the state’s Teacher of the Year has been sentenced to 14 years in prison for sexually exploiting a 16-year-old student and continuing to contact him despite legal orders to stay away.
Tera Johnson-Swartz, 45, began grooming the teen in 2024, using music, cigarettes, and marijuana. She initially exchanged text messages and playlists with him before giving him cigarettes and allowing him to use her marijuana vape pen, police said. Their relationship later became sexual.
The abuse was reported to authorities in January 2025, five months after Johnson-Swartz had been named one of seven finalists for Colorado’s Teacher of the Year Award. She was immediately suspended, later fired, and banned from the STEM School Highlands Ranch campus outside Denver.
Despite these restrictions, security footage on February 18, 2025, showed the student leaving school and getting into Johnson-Swartz’s car. He told investigators she drove him to a nearby neighborhood.
Johnson-Swartz was charged with felony kidnapping, three counts of sexual assault on a child, and contributing to the delinquency of a minor. She was released on a $100,000 bond but continued to contact the teen in violation of court orders.
Over the Fourth of July weekend, the teacher and the student ran into each other on consecutive nights at a music venue in Greenwood Village. The band performing was among those on the playlists they had shared. At one point, she confronted him, saying, “Just say you don’t love me.” After these encounters, she continued texting him, prompting the teen and his parents to notify police. Johnson-Swartz was arrested again at her new job at a fast-food restaurant.
The teen described Johnson-Swartz as “unstable” and said her behavior was unsurprising. “She threw away her entire life for me. I’m not entirely surprised she would then have trouble letting go,” he told authorities. He added that he never told her he loved her, and she never said it to him.
Douglas County District Attorney George Brauchler called Johnson-Swartz a “predator” who will have to carry that label for decades. The victim told police, “Already ruined her life, and she keeps just making it worse.”
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