EVERETT – The former principal of a Christian school in Arlington, Wash., has pleaded guilty to second-degree kidnapping in a plea deal with prosecutors, who dropped a charge of child rape.

Mark Evan Brown, 38, entered the plea Friday and is facing a year in jail. Snohomish County prosecutors say he exchanged hundreds of text messages with a 14-year-old student and encouraged her to run away from home. The girl said he set up a room at the school for her to stay in, and she was found at Brown’s home after her parents reported her missing.