A former Spanish teacher was sentenced to three years after pleading guilty to three counts of sexual offense against a student.
A former Spanish teacher at Franklin High School, Ekatherine Pappas, 25, was charged after police said they discovered a video of her engaged in a sex act with a male student.
Police said a school resource officer at Franklin became aware of the video and alerted the Police Department’s Crimes Against Children Unit, according to charging documents filed in court.
The police obtained an arrest warrant for Pappas in the same day the victim was interviewed. Upon her return few weeks later, she was arrested at the airport.
The victim, who was not named to avoid being identified, was 16, according to charging documents in the case. He told detectives that Pappas asked him to leave the school during school hours on two occasions in December, and drove with him to the victim’s home. One of the encounters was recorded.
The boy’s father wrote in a victim impact statement submitted to the court that his son and their entire family have been devastated by this case.
“I cannot begin to explain the terror of being notified that my son had been sexually abused and it was on videotape that had been circulated throughout the school for others to see,” he said in the statement, adding that he did not allow his son to return to the school afterward.
“As a young man, this entire ordeal has been extremely confusing for him, just as it would be for any victim that is exposed to sexual activity before they are at a level of maturity,” the student’s father said in court.
She pleaded guilty to three misdemeanor counts of sexual offense against a student. As part of a plea deal, prosecutors agreed to drop additional felony counts of sexual abuse of a minor.
She was sentenced to three years in prison, however, the judge suspended all but one year and one day of her term.
Pappas was also sentenced to five years of “specialized and enhanced supervised probation for sexual offenders” upon her release, the prosecutor said. In addition, she must register as a sex offender for 15 years.
Sources: Fox News, The Baltimore Sun
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