CASS COUNTY, Texas. (KTAL/KMSS) – An East Texas teacher has been sentenced to 80 years in prison for sexually assaulting a six-year-old boy.

According to District Attorney Courtney Shelton, 32-year-old Kennie Lewis Cook Jr. was sentenced Friday, a day after a Cass County jury found him guilty on three counts of aggravated sexual assault of a child.

Cook was a teacher and assistant band director at Mount Pleasant High School when he was arrested in February 2019. An investigation was prompted when a mother reported to Atlanta Texas Police that her son said he had been touched by an adult.

He will not be eligible for parole for at least 40 years.