EL CAJON – A former Helix High School teacher who admitted having sex with a student was sentenced to a year in jail Wednesday and placed on probation for three years by a judge who told him “you violated your oath as a teacher.”

Garry Lin Wilcox will be allowed to serve his jail term in a work furlough program where he is allowed to leave for work, but must return every night to a locked-down building, Judge Patricia K. Cookson said.

Wilcox, 44, also must pay for psychological counseling for the girl, who was 17 years old at the time, and for her family, the judge said.

“I'm deeply sorry,” Wilcox told the judge in El Cajon Superior Court. “I understand the consequences.”

A geography teacher and soccer coach at the school since 1995, Wilcox in July pleaded guilty to one count of having unlawful sex with a minor.

Wilcox admitted having sex with the girl once in a Mission Valley motel, but the girl told investigators that she had sex with him 100 times, sometimes on school grounds, Cookson said.

“I'm very disappointed in you,” the judge said.

Deputy District Attorney John Philpott said Wilcox had “an ongoing relationship” with the student from June 2006 into 2007.

The girl's father said in court that the affair has been “very devastating” to his family.

“He cheated his wife, he cheated my daughter, he cheated the (school) system,” the father said.

Wilcox's lawyer, Robert Grimes, asked the judge to go easy on Wilcox because he has lost his career as a teacher as a result of his conviction.

“He is trying to reinvent his life,” Grimes said. “In some cases, the cure is worse than the disease, and that's the case here,” Grimes said.

Philpott said the jail term for Wilcox should put other teachers on notice that they can't get into inappropriate relationships with their students. He said there had been a rash of such cases.

“I don't know if it's a matter of people getting caught more or people doing it more, but there's been a lot of it lately,” Philpott said.

Since December 2006, four former Helix High School teachers have been charged with having sex with students. In April, a former West Hills High School teacher was sentenced to 180 days in jail for having sex with a student.

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