everything is coming to a head. i'm beyond terrified as to what the end is. it's the bombshell story of the bombshell who landed in serious trouble. >> they thought something had happened that did not. >> the nfl cheerleader who just happened to teach high school english till ugly rumors started flying. >> do you feel like being a cheerleader sort of put a target on your back? >> it 100% did. >> accused of seducing a student, for months she insisted she was innocent. >> did you have any type of sexual relationship with cody york? >> no. >> tonight sarah jones tells "dateline" the real story. >> is this the truth, the final truth? >> this is the truth. >> revelations from investigators. >> there are over 8,000 text messages.

they actually made me blush. >> repercussions for sarah's own family. her mom indicted too. >> i was in jail with my daughter. >> plus, for the first time, her student is speaking out too, and he didn't come alone. >> what's it like to be sitting here today as a couple? >> i'm lester holt, and this is "dateline." tonight, "crossing the line." here's jeff rossen. >> reporter: with her dazzling smile and provocative moves, hard to believe this nfl cheerleader was also a buttoned-up high school english cheerleader. >> who can tell me after looking over -- >> reporter: accused of a felony sex crime. >> cheerleader indicted. >> reporter: it's the story that had everyone talking this summer. sarah jones painted as a predator who took advantage of a teenage boy, one of her own students.

and just last week, she faced a judge. >> state your name. >> sarah elizabeth jones. >> this was not about sex. this was not about a hidden relationship. >> reporter: so what was this about? sarah's defense team called it a modern-day witch hunt. >> they're obsessed, in my humble opinion, with getting her. >> prosecutors called her a sex offender, who knew what she did was wrong. >> the truth is going to come out, and i will bring it out. >> reporter: we'll go inside the case, from sarah's personal video journals. >> i'm beyond terrified. >> reporter: to her outright denials. >> did you ever have sex with this student? >> no. >> reporter: now you'll hear from that teenage boy at the center of it all, speaking exclusively to "dateline." >> when you heard the police are investigating, was it panic time? >> yes. i was a nervous wreck. i would just lay in my bed and cry. >> reporter: the juicy headlines would only skim the surface.

this saga isn't just about teacher/student sex, it's about choices. sarah's loyalty to the truth, parents loyalty to their children. their choices would takehem places they never wanted to go, and certainly a long way from where it all began. sarah was born and raised in small town kentucky. her dad, tim, ran a popular convenience store. her mom, cheryl, was a long-time teacher and school principal. >> what were you like as a kid? >> i was a happy, happy kid. kind of -- very busy. >> sarah, wave to me. >> reporter: sarah grew up in a close-knit family, all devout christians. they played together and prayed together. >> we do things as a family and

that's how i was raised. that's kind of what we focused on is doing everything as a family. >> reporter: sarah was homecoming queen and at the top of her class, anher parents were proud. >> it was a perfection thing that i wanted to have straight as and nothing was -- i was never going to settle for less. >> she is probably one of the most wholesome girls that you would find. >> she was going to graduate from high school. she was going to become a teacher. she was going to get married, she was going to have kids. >> the all-american life. >> absolutely. >> reporter: but when sarah turned 20, she surprised everyone. she says without telling her parents or anyone else, on a whim she tried out for the nfl's cincinnati bengals cheerleading squad. >> i believe there were like 400 girls that tried out, and i ended up making it. i have no idea. i called my parents and said, oh, by the way, i cheer for the bengals. and they were like okay, sarah, right. not you. >> reporter: yes, her.

but between cheers, sarah was studying to build a career just like mom. >> i absolutely could not wait to get a degree in education and start teaching. >> when sarah came to you and said i want to be a teacher -- >> i was thrilled. i mean when your child wants to follow in your footsteps, your good footsteps, you're thrilled. >> reporter: and right out of college, sarah scored her dream job, teaching english here at dixie heights high in kentucky. she was just 23. >> i wanted those kids to love school, because school should be a good experience. >> reporter: but sarah was a different kind of teacher. it wasn't just her age or personality, it was that flashy weekend job. >> the cheerleading thing, it made me more marketable as far as from the boys' standpoint because they could talk about -- you know, on monday they could come in and talk about the game because i was there. >> reporter: but the girls -- >> the girls were very jealous if any of their boyfriends were

in my class. >> hard to ignore the obvious. a lot of people see the skimpy outfits, the sexy poses and a lot of people see the cheerleaders as sex objects. as a mom, that bother you? >> i just really never thought of it that way. she's my kid. >> reporter: by age 24, sarah seemed to have it all. a career she loved and a weekend job she adored. but the good times wouldn't last long. >> do you feel like being a cheerleader sort of put a target on your back at school? >> it 100% did. >> reporter: soon sarah would realize just how big that target was. in late 2009, someone posted ugly rumors about her on the gossip website thedirty.com saying she might have sexually transmitted diseases. stds. >> they said that i had sex with the entire bengals football

squad, that i had contracted two stds from a cheating boyfriend. >> completely false. >> completely fabricated. not true. my name was out there as being a promiscuous cheerleader. it wasn't like you could wrubru it under the rug. >> and now the flood gates were open. before long sarah jones would face explosive new rumor this time about sex with a student, and this time the police were listening. >> so what started out as hallway whispers was about to spill outside school grounds with a full-on police investigation. soon the cops were pulling sarah out of the classroom and into the station house to interview her about the student at the center of the rumors. when we come back, how her answer to a pair of seemingly innocent questions blew the case wide open. >> texts from you to cody? >> no.

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probably totally opposite of what you think of when you think of an nfl glamour top cheerleader. >> when sarah wasn't cheering, she was focusing on her job as a high school teacher. things were looking up at home too. she had been dating the same guy on and off for ten years, nathan wilburn. >> you were in love with him? >> yeah, i was in love with him. i planned on spending my life with him. >> it all seemed so normal, which is why a batch of ugly rumors about her posted on a gossip website was so jarring. suddenly all the students in school were talking about their teacher, miss jones. >> people are whispering in the hallways, tramp, slut. >> exactly. >> what did this do to her? >> she was just -- she was so upset. you know, she -- sarah is a good

actress. she can put on a great front and it didn't affect her at school. it would affect her when she got home at night. >> sarah went on the offensive, suing the website's owner. she denies liability and the suit is pending. sarah also made her case on local radio. >> clearly, obviously, knowing myself that it was false information, i was devastated. >> reporter: but behind the scenes, sarah had even bigger problems. her relationship with nathan was in trouble. they had set a wedding date, but she was getting cold feet. >> it was like a dream come true, only i was marrying the wrong person. >> did you know that then? >> i knew that then. >> at the altar you knew you were marrying the wrong person? >> i knew i should not be getting married. i was walking down the aisle and my dad said are you sure you want to do this? he said we can walk out right now. >> why didn't you? >> i don't know. >> reporter: just six weeks later, the relationship fell

apart. sarah moved back in with her parents. divorced at 27. and now a new round of rumors was spreading around school, that sarah was sleeping with one of her students, a serious allegation. so serious it reached the school's front office. >> i was questioned by the administrator and basically they had heard from a student that i had an inappropriate relationship with a student. >> reporter: sarah denied it and the school seemed touy it. >> they investigated it, looked into it. obviously they found nothing and we went on with our day. >> reporter: but sarah's mom, a principal in the same district, wanted answers of her own. >> did you sit sarah down and say look at me in the eye, it's just here, just us girls, and tell me what happened? >> yeah. >> what did she say? >> she said, mom, nothing has happen

happened. we are friends. she assured me that there was -- there was nothing. >> no sex? >> nothing. >> did you ever have sex with a student? >> no. it was never like that, no. it was -- >> emotional? >> yes. >> but not sexual? >> no. it was never -- never about that. never like that. >> reporter: but the rumors wouldn't die. by chance, the local police chief overheard them at a weekend party. and called in his lead detective, julie inman. >> here's what we have, here's what's being said. i want you to look into it. >> reporter: she didn't have much to work with, but she did have two names. sarah jones and cody york, a mild-mannered 17-year-old who played baseball on the high school team. inman interviewed students who gave her sarah and cody's cell numbers. inman pulled the phone records. >> there were over 575 phone

calls between the two of them. you know, there was nothing that i could make sense of as to why a teacher and a student would be talking at 2:30 in the morning or on the weekend or as much as they were. >> reporter: a lot of calls. but what were they talking about? maybe their texts would tell her. so inman got the phone company to hand those over too. and what she found. >> in just a month's time there were over 8,000 text messages between sarah and cody. the text messages were sexually explicit. they actually made me blush reading them. >> reporter: detective inman now had ammunition, hard evidence something was going on. it was finally time to question sarah jones herself, who brought her mother, cheryl, to the interview. >> i want to let you know first and foremost that this is obviously a voluntary interview.

>> reporter: inman's strategy now, lock sarah into a story and turn up the heat. >> do you know cody york? >> yeah. >> how do you know cody? >> i had cody his freshman year. >> i started asking questions of have you ever sent a text message to cody york? >> no text messages from cody to you? >> no. >> and none from you to cody? >> no. >> she was denying any type of interaction with him. >> have you ever slept with cody? >> no. >> do you have any type of sexual relationship with cody? >> no. >> york? have you ever in the past? >> no. >> have you ever talked on the phone or text messages or e-mails or anything with any sexual content? >> no. >> detective inman was about to pounce, pulling out those steamy texts to knock sarah off her game. >> these are text messages from cody's phone. >> okay. where did you get these? >> what do you mean? >> where did you get these text

messages from? >> and i told her, i said i have a search warrant that allowed me to get the text message content. >> are these your text messages? >> sarah and cheryl read the text messages in silence. >> and cheryl immediately got on the phone to call their attorney. >> yeah, i mean i don't know where these text messages came from. but we're not going to talk to anybody else. we're done. >> with that, the joneses ended the interview and their cooperation with police. that night sarah wrote a resignation letter to the school and, she says, a suicide letter to her parents. >> to lose my job -- to lose my marriage, to lose all these things was very, very destructive. that night i had gone home and i didn't know how i was going to do it and i wrote letters to my

parents. i did a whole lot of things -- >> saying goodbye? >> yep. just basically, you know, i don't know why this is happening but i don't want to deal with it anymore. >> sarah's parents took that threat seriously and sent her to the hospital. after 48 hours on suicide watch, she was released. but the biggest blow was yet to come. police were about to make their move. coming up, sarah had lied in her interview with the cops, and she was about to find out how much it would cost her. >> i didn't wrap my mind around it. i didn't even cry at first. it was deeper than that. there were no tears. >> when "dateline" continues. do you like my dress?

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what began as a rumor in her high school hallway had landed sarah jones in a police interrogation room. >> this is obviously a voluntary interview, okay? >> questions about sex with one of her students, cody york. >> the rumor that we had been told and that we are wanting to clarify with you is that you and cody have slept together, have had sex together. is that true? >> no. >> have you ever slept with cody? >> no. >> i was shocked and scared because i knew at that point in time they had a misconstrued situation and they thought something had happened that did not. >> but prosecutors were ready to charge her. in kentucky, the age of legal consent is 16. cody was 17. so even if he and sarah had sex, it wasn't statutory rape. instead, prosecutors used another law that says teachers

can't have sex with students under 18. a grand jury indicted sarah jones on first-degree sexual abuse, and for using those text messages to lure him in. >> i didn't wrap my mind around it. i didn't even cry at first. it was deeper than that. there were no tears. and then my mom so calmly told me and i have been charged too. and i said, wait a minute, for what? >> cheryl jones, devoted mother, school principal, had also been indicted, accused of tampering with evidence. trying to cover up her daughter's crimes by texting cody york to get rid of his cell phone before the cops came. >> i had no idea i was even considered for any kind of indictment. it totally floored me. >> reporter: they turned themselves in, and suddenly a new family portrait, mother/daughter mug shots, both thrown in the county jail. >> you were in jail with your daughter?

>> i was in jail with my daughter. that's not one of the things that we had on our bucket list. >> reporter: the jones family scraped up the $80,000 cash bond, and hours later they were out. >> i understand how severe a sex abuse crime case is, but i haven't been convicted of anything. >> reporter: sarah was placed on house arrest, on an ankle bracelet, police monitoring her every move. even a walk to the mailbox. >> it's really frustrating to be -- to not have any restraints at all and then to go completely restrained is very difficult because it's just like sometimes you just -- it's you just want to get out. we're getting ready to lose the range so i can't go much farther. >> tell me when to stop. >> we get about right here. >> reporter: even when sarah would stay in range, the alarm would sometimes go off. i'm getting a violation, sorry. >> right now? >> yeah, sorry. i'm here. everybody can vouch for that.

>> why don't you keep that close so everything stays okay. >> reporter: we had been talking about the case and sarah continued to maintain her innocence. >> what people think right now is that he was a student and we just got involved in a sexual relationship. not true. >> let me play devil's advocate. prosecutors are in the business of winning cases. prosecutors don't care about high school rumors in general. why bring a case against you if they don't have the hard evidence to put you away? >> i think that they thought they had an ace in the hole and that they knew that this was true and they were going to run with it. i can assure you now after the fact seeing the evidence, knowing what they have, knowing what they know, they should have never taken it this far. >> reporter: prosecutors did have those texts, but what they didn't have was a statement from the boy, cody. a major hurdle for prosecutor sara farmer. >> the victim wasn't cooperating? >> correct. or his parents. >> that makes your job a lot

tougher? >> it does. it makes it tougher to prove a sex crime when we don't have someone to say we had sex. >> reporter: what's more, in a bizarre twist, cody york's parents were coming to court hearings and sitting with sarah's parents. >> and not only was it lack of cooperation, it was adamant support for sarah jones. that certainly impacted our case. >> reporter: and then there was the unspoken problem. >> i don't think that society looked at him as a victim the way they might if it was a young female student and a much older man. >> maybe getting high fives in the hallways? >> absolutely. >> if everyone is saying drop the case, the victim is saying drop the case, sarah jones is saying drop the case, everyone seems to be fine, why not just drop it and move on to something more serious. why waste taxpayer money on that? >> it's my job. i'm a prosecutor. i'm not hired by victims. i'm not hired to represent any one particular person. i represent the citizens of the

community. >> reporter: she wasn't the only one preparing for battle. sarah's defense lawyer, eric deters, was ready for a fight too. he calls himself the bulldog. >> they're obsessed, in my humble opinion, with getting her. she's a ben-gal cheerleader so they have their preconceptions of, you know, she thinks she's so popular. she's cheering at nfl games. she thinks she can get away with this. we're going to show her. and they get obsessed with just trying to get somebody instead of just letting it go. just let it go! >> prosecutors aren't backing down? >> they will. >> you think they will? >> absolutely. you know, i've gotten teased a little bit that i have these aces up my sleeve. i've used the word "aces." >> do you? >> oh, yeah. >> one of them, sarah jones herself. the court allowed sarah to take a job working for deters as his legal secretary.

she even wrote motions for her own case. >> you've read every page in these files? >> yes. this is my life, so who's going to fight harder to save their life than yourself. >> reporter: but sarah's life was in limbo. >> actually i'm exiting my 21st week of home incarceration. >> reporter: she revealed her fears in personal video diaries for "dateline." >> everything is coming to a close and coming to a head. so the nerves are -- i'm beyond terrified as to what the end is. >> reporter: her trial was around the corner. both sides armed and ready. but hold on, sarah was about to shock everyone in open court. >> i am now taking responsibility for my actions. >> there you go. coming up, sarah's surprise sets everyone reeling. then she explains herself to us. >> it is literally the saying the truth will set you free. >> when "crossing the line" continues. [ male announcer ] precision. at lenscrafters we call it accufit.

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sarah jones had her game face on, ready for her trial on sex abuse charges, and the stakes were high. if convicted, she could be a registered sex offender and face up to ten years in prison. >> the nerves are starting to set in. this is what i've been waiting for. >> then just two days before trial, a dramatic development in the case. both sides were summoned to court for an emergency hearing. cody york had a front row seat, right next to sarah's dad. sarah jones and the prosecutor had reached a plea deal. >> do you swear that the testimony you are about to give in this matter will be the truth, so help you god? >> yes, ma'am. >> sarah, who always maintained her innocence, would have to admit to the court and to the world that she was guilty.

>> i sent explicitly texas messages to cody york when he was a student. i had sexual contact, including sexual intercourse with cody york in kenton county, kentucky, while he was a student and i was a teacher at dixie heights high school. >> a total reversal from sarah jones. the very next day she sat down with "dateline" for a new interview. >> you stood up in open court and admitted i lied, i had sex with him, i had a relationship with him. >> as anybody knows, it's hard to admit your mistakes. you hope that people will forgive you. but it is literally the saying the truth will set you free. it was like the stress fell off of me after it was out there and i didn't have to hide anymore. >> in exchange for her guilty plea, sarah's charges were reduced. she was sentenced to five years probation, no jail time, no sex offender registry. >> you were a teacher, he was a student. >> right. >> did you know that was wrong? >> absolutely that's wrong.

there's no gray area. there is -- it is wrong for a teacher to have any type of relationship that crosses the line with a student. again, though -- >> you get that. >> absolutely. >> do you feel guilty about what you did? >> yeah. what i did was wrong and i feel guilty as to what happened and that other people were hurt in this. in a sense from our families having to go through this. >> have you ever talked on phones or text messages or e-mails or anything, with any sexual content? >> no. >> you lied to law enforcement. you said you didn't have a relationship outside of school, but they knew that you had been texting with him. >> i had been blindsided. i had no idea that they -- that it was even in the realm of possibilities that they had his text messages. i lied out of fear. again, that's wrong. but when you're trying to protect yourself and you are just trying to -- i didn't know what to do. >> i'm going to the transcripts of our interview. you even lied to us. >> what did i say?

>> i said to you did you ever have sex with this student? you said no. it was never, never like that, no. >> that's partly true. it was never like that. you know, there's a fine line about telling the truth, lying. >> you did have sex with him, though? you said no to that question. >> right. well, openly in an interview, you can't really come out and express what the facts of the case are. we're talking about a criminal court case. it would not be very smart for me on an interview to come out and tell you the truth when i had a court case in a couple months. >> do you swear or affirm the testimony you are about to give in this matter will be the truth, so help you god? >> yes. >> sarah's mother, cheryl, struck a deal too. also pleading guilty to a reduced charge. >> tell me what you did. >> i sent a text message to cody, and the text message said get rid of the phone. >> sarah made you lie for her?

hide this? >> i hid it in the fact that, yes, i did send a text message. did i destroy anything? hmm-mm. i just did what i needed to do. i supported my daughter and loved her unconditionally, knowing full well that at some point in time the truth had to come out. >> a lot of moms are probably watching this right now saying, look, i would do the same for my kid. >> sure. >> i would lie, i would protect them at all costs. but then there are others who would say, you know what, you're supposed to set the example. you're supposed to teach them you don't lie. i'm sorry you made a bad choice, but here are the consequences. >> yeah. and i -- i understand that side of it too. >> cheryl did pay a price. forced into early retirement from her job as a school principal. >> after 35 years, i walked out and that was it. didn't -- couldn't clean out my office, couldn't say goodbye,

couldn't tell my teachers i was retiring, nothing. >> reporter: cheryl and sarah have both come clean. now it's cody's turn. >> you had this giant secret you were trying to keep from people, from everyone. >> very difficult. >> reporter: the teenage boy at the heart of it all tells his side of the story for the first time. coming up, cody york opens up about the beginning of the affair. who hit on whom? >> that's how it started. >> when "dateline" continues. and you can use up to four times less. good news for even the biggest kids in the family. we all go. why not enjoy the go

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data, text and calling. foil yourith truly unlimited house to reflect the sun's rays back into space to try to reduce climate change. but there are easier ways to go green. like turning off the lights when you leave a room. you could save the tin foil for leftovers the more you know. for me it's not a problem -- >> we've heard from sarah jones. we've heard from police and prosecutor, but no one has ever

heard from cody york until now. >> i'm not used to seeing my face on the media at all. it was just -- it was everywhere around me. >> cody sat down with "dateline" for an exclusive interview. a young man on the verge of adulthood. under the law, the victim of a sex crime, committed by his teacher, sarah jones. >> what was it like to be called the victim? >> i didn't like being called the victim, because i wasn't a victim. i wasn't a victim of anything. she never did anything to me. >> did she manipulate you? >> absolutely not. >> use her power of authority over you? >> no, not at all. >> cody says to truly understand what happened, you need to hear him tell it. how sarah entered his life years ago. he said their families mingled in the same small town social circles. >> we were friends before i was even in high school, before she was a teacher. i could always go to her and talk to her about anything. she was my support system. and she was my best friend.

>> so when cody had miss jones for freshman english, there was already a bond. a strange dynamic for a teacher and student. >> i never looked at her as a teacher. i don't even think i called her miss jones before. >> by cody's senior year, sarah was all he could think about. >> do you remember the moment that you said to yourself, you know what, i think i may have feelings for this girl. >> i don't remember the exact moment, but outside of school, it just started coming along. like every time i would see her outside, it would just hit me harder and harder and harder every single time. that's just how it started. >> reporter: in fact cody says sarah didn't prey on him, he's the one who pursued her. even assay sarah got married to another man. >> sarah got married to nathan. what did you make of that marriage. >> i knew they weren't going to last. i knew that she deserved more, and i knew we were going to end up together.

i just knew it. >> even then? >> yes. >> did you say that to her? >> yes, i said it to her. >> sarah felt it too. their nine-year age difference didn't seem to matter. they crossed the line and had sex. >> before you consummated the relationship, did you realize, you know what, sarah could get in a lot of trouble for this. >> absolutely, mm-hmm. >> but you guys still did it? >> yeah, because it was worth it. but i never in a million years thought this would ever happen, so -- i don't know. >> you never thought it would get to this point? >> absolutely not, hmm-mm. >> there was no turning back. now it was all about covering it up. >> you had this giant secret you were trying to keep from people, from everyone. >> very difficult. because i wanted to be able to tell my friends, like, this is my girlfriend. >> did your friends say to you, dude, did you do this? >> yeah, absolutely. almost every single day. >> and what did you say to them? >> no. >> you lied? >> yeah.

i just kept my mouth closed. >> reporter: and sarah needed him to keep his mouth closed, if ever questioned. >> honestly in my mind, as dumb as it may sound, and i admit it, that i literally thought nothing could happen to me unless cody turned me in. >> you knew he wasn't going to do that? >> i knew he wasn't going to do that. >> did you and sarah ever say to yourselves we can't admit to what's going on? >> yes, that's just how it works. she knew i had her back. >> you felt like this was airtight? >> yeah. >> how could they ever prove anything? >> that's exactly what i thought. >> reporter: but little did they know, investigators were one step ahead of them. they had those steamy and incriminating texts. >> where did you get these? >> reporter: after that game-changing police interrogation, sarah and cody felt they were backed into a corner. >> i was a nervous wreck. i would just lay in my bed and cry, just because i knew that she didn't deserve to be in trouble and i did not want anything to happen to her at

all. >> reporter: it was time to drop the bomb on their families. >> we sat both our parents down and we came out with it. we told them everything. we had to. we knew at that point in time that once the police were involved, we had been -- we were caught. >> the jig was up? >> mm-hmm. >> it was nerve-racking, but both families were very understanding. >> they weren't like what are you two thinking? >> of course they were saying that. they were saying we were dumb and everything, but who wouldn't? >> when they told you that night, i just want to get into your mindset. your first reaction? >> i wanted to wring her neck. i mean that's just plain and simple. what in the name of all that is holy were you thinking? >> and i'm sure you weren't laughing when you said that? >> no, i wasn't. i was sick. i was sick. >> reporter: sarah's parents had a choice to make. tell police the truth or protect their daughter. in the end, they chose their daughter. >> was it hard for you to keep this bottled up inside? >> it was hard.

it was very hard. because i didn't want to be dishonest and i didn't want to portray that she was totally innocent. and i don't think i did. i mean some people may look at me and say that i just was a bold-faced liar. i don't feel like i was. i said multiple times, she's not totally innocent, but she's not what they're trying to make her out to be. >> reporter: when sarah was indicted sitting on house arrest, the court had cut her off from cody. banned from seeing him, calling him or texting him. that, she says, was the worst part of all. >> it was very hard to not be able to contact him. i mean if you can imagine what it's like to not be able to see your best friend for a long time, six months, i struggled with it daily. i cried daily. >> what was it like being apart? >> the hardest six months i had to deal with ever. i wish that i could have been on house arrest and she didn't. >> reporter: but no one said

anything about twitter. >> i follow you on twitter. here are some of the things you've tweeted. i know soon we'll be together and i can't wait till then. i can conquer the world with one hand as long as you're holding the other. were those messages for cody? >> we used twitter as communication to each other when we were not allowed to communicate. i could tweet it. if he read it, he knew i was thinking about him. >> reporter: the sneaking around, the family embarrassment, the guilty plea. after all of it, they walk out of court holding hands. coming up, a teacher forced out. a student put through the wringer. reputations shredded. if you think you know how this story ends, think again. >> he says, sarah, you look so beautiful in your mug shot. that's how i know he really loves me. >> sarah and cody together, in their first interview as a couple. and coming up next friday on "dateline" -- >> i'm chris hanson with dateline nbc. >> he's back. chris hanson is undercover, and

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to sarah and cody, this is their coming out party. a once for bbidden affair once shrouded in secrecy, now on full display. >> he's wonderful. i absolutely adore everything. even if he does have flaws, i adore them. >> love everything about her. literally everything. >> just one day after sarah's emotional guilty plea. >> i had sexual contact, including sexual intercourse with cody york in kenton county, kentucky, while he was a student and i was a teacher at dixie heights high school. >> she sat down with cody york, her boyfriend, for an exclusive interview. >> is sarah a good girlfriend? >> she's the best girlfriend. >> why? what makes her the best girlfriend? >> because she's so nice. she doesn't get mad, you know. >> we haven't been around each other a lot, so -- >> just wait. >> just wait, right? >> they say it's the kind of

time they have shared that really matters. >> he's seen the bad side of me. he's seen me break down and be at my lowest. if you can love someone at their lows, that says a lot. if you can love somebody after you've seen my mug shot, that's big right there. he said, sarah, you look so beautiful in your mug shot. that's how i know he loves me. >> she can break down in front of me, be her worst in front of me and it makes me love her even more. >> why? >> because she's able to be herself around me. she can do anything she wants around me. >> there are a lot of people who are going to watch this and say, look, this was born out of lies, born out of a cover-up and something that was wrong, so how could something right come out of that? >> we made a poor choice together. but that doesn't mean that we can't find happiness at the end of the day. and we will. >> it doesn't really matter what other people think. we will prove those people wrong because i know we will be together. >> and believe it or not, after

everything, their parents are behind them. >> if they can build a relationship based on their faith and their love and this is what they truly feel that they're called to do, i'll support her. >> you support them as a couple? >> i will support them, yes. >> reporter: one thing is clear, sarah and cody are out in a major way, posting these photos just this week on a road trip together. while they may be ready to ride off into the sunset, back at home, some say damage has been done. jim hannah is a reporter for the "kentucky inquirer." >> when sarah jones walked out of the courtroom hand in hand with her victim, i think a lot of people watched that on television and felt like she was flaunting to the community what she had gotten away with. >> your girlfriend has admitted to a sex crime. >> she didn't have to admit to a sex crime. we're in a relationship. there's no crime done. >> sarah says she was wrong by doing this.

do you agree? >> wrong by getting in a relationship with me? no. wrong because of i guess her position of authority, i guess you could say so. >> you don't seem convinced. >> because she's my girlfriend. how can i be convinced she did something wrong. >> we can be honest here. cody is 18 years old. he is not a victim. he wanted this just as much as i did. this is something that we decided together. and regardless of how guilty i feel and what mistake i did make, i don't believe that i deserve to have that role as a sex offender or jail time. >> so the fact that she accepted the deal, i'm happy. >> reporter: sarah's lawyer, eric deters, who had the aces up his sleeve called the deal a victory. >> i want to thank sara farmer, the special prosecutor, to agreeing to this deal. the reason you do deals is because both parties have issues with their case. >> what's the moral of the story? what's the takeaway? >> teachers having relationships with students does matter. it's illegal.

and it's important that we give our time and attention to it and do something to stop it. >> reporter: sarah jones will never teach again. that's part of the deal. and, she says, she never wants to cheer again. no, sarah jones wants to be a lawyer. >> i plan on taking the lsat in the spring and starting law school in the fall. i know that's a big career change, going from teaching to being a lawyer. if you love to do what you're doing, then that's what you should be doing. >> reporter: cody just enrolled in college. >> what are you going to do, cody? >> well, i'm planning on just graduating college and getting my marketing degree and finding a job from there. i mean isn't that what college students do? >> reporter: two lives just getting started really. and for once, they say, they're taking it slow. >> nobody can ever say where something is going. you don't know what's going to happen or what the future holds

for us. we are just taking it day by day. >> you have told me on multiple occasions, you just want the truth to come out and in the end the truth will. >> yes. >> but you've lied. so is the truth out now? why should we believe you? >> yes. that's all i've ever said is i want the truth to come out. >> is this the truth? is this the final truth? >> this is the truth. >> that's all for this edition of "dateline." we'll be back again next friday at 10:00/9:00 central and i'll see you tomorrow on "today." i'm lester holt. for all of us at nbc news, good night. [ minto ] you know, those ads saying mitt romney would ban all abortions and contraception seemed a bit extreme. so i looked into it. turns out, romney doesn't oppose contraception at all. in fact, he thinks abortion should be an option in cases of rape, incest, or to save a mother's life. this issue's important to me, but i'm more concerned about the debt our children will be left with. i voted for president obama last time,