Former Colorado Teacher Of The Year Finalist Sentenced To 14 Years In Student Abuse Case

By Logan Smith | CBS Colorado

A finalist for 2025 Colorado Teacher of the Year violated the terms of her probation and continued to contact one of her former students after she’d been criminally charged for having a relationship with the student and fired from her teaching position, according to a court document.

Tera Johnson-Swartz was sentenced on March 19 to 14 years in the Colorado Department of Corrections. Two cases were filed against her – the first following a grand jury investigation into the relationship, the second after detectives learned that Johnson-Swartz was trying to maintain contact with the student.

The student confirmed those attempts, according to the arrest affidavit in the second case. In an interview, the student said his former teacher walked up to him at a concert and said, “Just say you don’t love me,” according to a detective’s narration in the affidavit.

Johnson-Swartz was 44 years old when the teacher-student relationship was discovered in January 2025 by therapists who reported it to Douglas County Human Services. The student was then 16.

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