California educator honored as ‘Teacher of the Year’ receives a 30-year prison sentence for sexually abusing students

A former California “Teacher of the Year” was sentenced on Friday to 30 years in prison for sexually abusing two of her sixth-grade students.

In February, Jacqueline Ma, aged 36, admitted to committing two instances of forcible lewd acts on a child, one count of lewd acts on a child, and one count of possessing child sexual abuse material, according to a news release from the San Diego County District Attorney’s Office.

District Attorney Summer Stephan stated, “This individual broke the trust she had established with her students in a severe and devastating manner, and her behavior is abhorrent. Her victims will have to cope with long-term negative consequences, and her 30-year imprisonment is fitting.”

Ma was a teacher at Lincoln Acres Elementary School in National City and had been honored as the San Diego County “Teacher of the Year” for the 2022-2023 school year.

Despite the boy’s parents not allowing him to have social media or his own electronics, Ma was able to communicate with him through an unsanctioned after-school program and through a school chat application, the district attorney’s office said.

Ma groomed the boy for over a year before she sexually assaulted him in her classroom over a period of three months while his parents believed he was participating in an after-school basketball program, prosecutors said.

Ma sexually assaulted a 12-year-old boy in her classroom at Lincoln Acres Elementary School in National City over a period of three months, prosecutors said.  (Google Street View)

Further investigation into Ma revealed that she had targeted and sexually assaulted a second victim, an 11-year-old boy, in 2020, according to the district attorney’s office.

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

Ma must serve the full 30 years before she is eligible for parole, the Union-Tribune reported.