Former US teacher sentenced to 30 years for having sex with student
She will only spend one year in jail after a judge suspends most of the sentence
Dubai: A former school teacher in Maryland, US, who sexually abused a teenage student in 2015, has been sentenced to 30 years in prison. However, Melissa Marie Curtis, 32, will serve only one year in jail after a judge suspended much of the sentence, according to a Fox News report.
After her release, the former Montgomery Village Middle School teacher will have to register as a sex offender for 25 years. Curtis, who will be on probation for five years, will be barred from having unsupervised contact with minors apart from her children, the report added.
In 2015, Curtis — who was 22 at the time — had engaged in sex with the minor more than 20 times in four months. The 14-year-old victim was often alone with Curtis when he volunteered for an after-school programme run by the teacher. The abuse happened inside a classroom, in her car, at the boy’s home, at her mother’s home and several residences, according to court documents obtained by the New York Post.
She also reportedly gave the child alcohol and marijuana, the Post report said, citing the Montgomery County Police Department.
The abuse was discovered last year when a man told police that, as an eighth grader, he engaged in sexual acts with the former teacher at Lakelands Park Middle School. Following a warrant for Curtis’s arrest, the teacher turned herself in on November 7, 2023.
Curtis, who hails from Upper Marlboro, Prince George’s County in Maryland, had been charged with 15 counts when she was arrested, including sexual abuse of a minor and multiple counts of third and fourth-degree sexual offences.
She pleaded guilty to three charges of third-degree sex offence in June.