A guidance counselor at a private Christian school in Mobile was convicted by a judge Friday of failing to report a now former teacher’s alleged sexual encounters with a 16-year-old student, prosecutors said.

Carrie Meredith, a guidance counselor at Faith Academy, was found guilty by Mobile County District Court Judge Zack Moore of failing to report, announced the Mobile County District Attorney’s Office.

Meredith failed to report suspected sexual misconduct by then-Faith Academy science teacher Jonathan Sauers and a 16-year-old student at the school.

The charges against Meredith were the first of their kind filed by Mobile County District Attorney Keith Blackwood.

“There is an ongoing issue with failing to report this type of behavior,” said Jennifer Susman, chief assistant district attorney, in a statement. “Guidance counselors, teachers, and school employees are in trusted positions, and they are our first line of defense for our children. We must know that when we send our kids to school, they’re safe.”

Meredith faces up to six months in prison and a fine of up to $500 when she is sentenced.

Sauers, whose trial is pending, was arrested last year after the 16-year-old girl told police and her parents about the relationship, which she said was consensual.

According to the affidavit filed in the case, Semmes police were notified on March 13 of a possible runaway.

The mother advised her 16-year-old daughter had gone to a local Walmart for school supplies, but when she did not return after an hour, the parents drove to the Walmart and found the girl’s car with her cell phone still inside.

Semmes police located the girl walking on Moffett Road. The affidavit states she told them she had been having sexual relations with Sauers, her science teacher at Faith Academy, a private school in Mobile.

According to the affidavit, the girl told police Sauers had picked her up from the Walmart parking lot and drove her to the parking lot of an adjacent Subway restaurant, where she said the sexual encounter took place in the backseat of Sauers’ 2012 Nissan Armada.

Surveillance video from the Walmart parking lot confirmed the girl got into a black Nissan Armada which then left the parking lot, police said.

The girl was taken to USA Children’s & Women’s Hospital for a sexual assault exam. The following day, she told investigators she and Sauers had engaged in sexual intercourse at Sauers’ residence weeks prior to the March 13 incident.

Mobile County deputies detained Sauers at the school and his Nissan Armada was impounded.

Sauers agreed to be interrogated without a lawyer present and, according to the affidavit, confessed to having sexual intercourse and sexual contact with the 16-year-old student.

He was arrested and charged, later released after posting $40,000 bond.