California 'teacher of the year' sexually assaulted elementary school boys. She gets 30-year term

[ad_1] A San Diego County educator who as soon as was named instructor of the yr has been sentenced to 30 years to life for grooming and sexually assaulting two younger boys in her elementary faculty classroom in Nationwide Metropolis.

Jacqueline Ma took benefit of her function as a fifth- and sixth-grade instructor at Lincoln Acres Elementary to control her victims, luring them with items, particular consideration and even finishing their homework, in response to the San Diego County district legal professional’s workplace.

When one in all her victims was not allowed entry to social media or private digital gadgets at dwelling, she went as far as to arrange an unsanctioned after-school program and directed him to message her by means of a faculty chat software, prosecutors mentioned.

The 36-year-old instructor pleaded responsible in February to 2 counts of forcible lewd acts on a baby, one rely of a lewd act on a baby, and one rely of possessing youngster sexual abuse materials.

She was arrested by the Nationwide Metropolis Police Division in March 2023 after the mom of one of many victims reported inappropriate messages she discovered between her son and Ma on a household pill. Investigators realized that Ma had groomed the boy for greater than a yr earlier than sexually abusing him when he was 12 years outdated.

Ma carried out sexual acts on the boy in her classroom over a three-month interval, whereas his mother and father thought he was taking part in an after-school basketball program, prosecutors mentioned.

Investigators additionally found that she had groomed and sexually assaulted a second sufferer, an 11-year-old boy, in 2020.

“This defendant violated the belief she had together with her college students in probably the most excessive and traumatic approach potential and her actions are despicable,” Dist. Atty. Summer time Stephan mentioned in an announcement. “Her victims must take care of a lifetime of adverse results and her 30-year sentence is suitable.”

Ma was named instructor of the yr for the 2022-23 tutorial yr by the San Diego County Workplace of Training. She earned her bachelor’s diploma in biology and grasp’s diploma in training from UC San Diego and had taught fifth and sixth grades within the Nationwide Faculty District since 2013, in response to a profile within the San Diego Union-Tribune.

She used her popularity as an above-and-beyond educator who was personally invested in her college students’ success to realize the belief of victims’ mother and father, prosecutors mentioned.

“No youngster deserves what this defendant did,” mentioned Stephan. “I hope this sentence brings a measure of justice to the victims, their households and the neighborhood that was left reeling from this defendant’s crimes.”