A San Diego County educator who as soon as was named trainer of the 12 months has been sentenced to 30 years to life for grooming and sexually assaulting two younger boys in her elementary college classroom in Nationwide Metropolis.
Jacqueline Ma took benefit of her position as a fifth- and sixth-grade trainer at Lincoln Acres Elementary to govern her victims, luring them with presents, particular consideration and even finishing their homework, based on 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 units at dwelling, she went as far as to arrange an unsanctioned after-school program and directed him to message her via a college chat software, prosecutors stated.
The 36-year-old trainer pleaded responsible in February to 2 counts of forcible lewd acts on a toddler, one depend of a lewd act on a toddler, and one depend of possessing baby 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that Ma had groomed the boy for greater than a 12 months earlier than sexually abusing him when he was 12 years outdated.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 stated.
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 along with her college students in probably the most excessive and traumatic approach doable and her actions are despicable,” Dist. Atty. Summer season Stephan stated in an announcement. “Her victims must take care of a lifetime of unfavorable results and her 30-year sentence is acceptable.”
Ma was named trainer of the 12 months for the 2022-23 tutorial 12 months 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, based on a profile within the San Diego Union-Tribune.
She used her status as an above-and-beyond educator who was personally invested in her college students’ success to achieve the belief of victims’ mother and father, prosecutors stated.
“No baby deserves what this defendant did,” stated 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.”
