Former Maury County teacher Tad Cummins filed a motion for early release from prison this week due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
If the motion is filed by counsel, the government has 14 days to respond.
The former teacher was sentenced in January 2019 to serve 20 years in jail after making national headlines for going on the run with a then-15-year-old Maury County high school student for more than a month.
Cummins admitted he took the student on a cross-country trip that began March 13, 2017. Along the way, they stole license plates in Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Utah, Nevada and Oklahoma to avoid being caught. The two bought a kayak in an attempt to paddle from California to Mexico but the water was too rough.
Investigators found Cummins and the girl in California five weeks after they disappeared living in a cabin on a commune. Cummins admitted to having sex with the teen several times.
Cummins had entered a plea of guilty last year on two counts for transporting a minor for sex and destroying evidence, and destroying both their cell phones.
The girl's father eventually sued Cummins and the school board.