Featured Image Credit: CBS Evening News
Topics: Social Media, News, US News, Crime
Madison Burgess
A student who's accused of killing his maths teacher in a tragic freak accident shared quotes highlighting his Christian faith on Instagram, before the prank-gone-wrong.
Jason Hughes, 40, who taught maths at North Hall High School in Gainesville, Georgia, lost his life last week when a practical joke pulled by his students took a horrific turn.
The teacher was at his home on Thursday evening (5 March) when a group of five teens turned up at his property, hoping to do the classic prank of covering his front lawn in toilet roll.
However, when Hughes came outside, 'excited and waiting to catch them in the act,' he slipped over due to the rainy conditions and fell into the road.
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In their effort to speed off so as not to get caught in the 'prank war,' police say 18-year-old Jayden Ryan Wallace ran over Hughes in his pick-up truck.
He and the students he was with got out of the vehicle to administer first aid and call for emergency services, but tragically, it was too late.
Hughes died of his injuries after being taken to Northeast Georgia Medical Center.
The 40-year-old has heartbreakingly left behind his wife, Laura, who was also a teacher at the same school, and their two young sons.
The prank was supposed to earn the group points as part of a fun 'Junior vs Senior' annual tradition before spring break, where the students try to play jokes on their teachers.
Wallace has since been charged with first-degree vehicular homicide, reckless driving, criminal trespass, and littering on private property.
The other four teens who were with him - Elijah Tate Owens, Aiden Hucks, Ana Katherine Luque, and Ariana Cruz, all 18, were charged with criminal trespass and littering.
Now, it's emerged that before the tragedy, Wallace had shared posts about his Christian faith on Instagram, including the Bible verse Romans 10:9.
“If you confess with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved,” he wrote in one post, according to The Sun.
The resurfaced social media post comes as Hughes' wife, Laura, has spoken out for the first time on the loss of her husband.
She explained that Hughes and the students 'loved each other' and asked for charges against all five teenagers to be dropped.
Laura clarified that her husband wasn't going to confront the students but instead was 'excited and waiting to catch them in the act'.
The fellow teacher told The New York Times: "This is a terrible tragedy, and our family is determined to prevent a separate tragedy from occurring, ruining the lives of these students. This would be counter to Jason’s lifelong dedication of investing in the lives of these children."
She added that the family fully supports 'getting the charges dropped for all involved'.