Former ‘Teacher of the Year’ Jacqueline Ma appears in court to face a new round of charges against her involving sexual abuse of a minor. (Screengrab via KFMB/CBS8)
Jacqueline Ma, a former “Teacher of the Year” from National City, California, is accused of engaging in sexual misconduct with a second child under the age of 14 mere months after she was arrested on multiple felony counts for allegedly having inappropriate relations with a different minor.
The former Lincoln Acres Elementary School teacher was first arrested this March after a parent went to police with suspicions that her 13-year-old child was being victimized by Ma and an investigation promptly got underway.
In the initial criminal complaint, Ma was accused of six felony counts, including lewd and lascivious acts against a victim under the age of 14 and three counts of oral copulation with a victim under the age of 14. Prosecutors filed an amended complaint Thursday which brought the total charges against Ma to 19 felony counts. They include lewd acts with a child as well as counts involving the use of child sexual abuse materials. Ma has pleaded not guilty but has been denied bond because she was deemed a danger to the public and the victims by the Superior Court of California in San Diego.
It is unclear if Ma’s second victim at the center of Thursday’s amended complaint was a former student of hers, though according to the criminal complaint, it appears at least one alleged incident happened inside of a classroom.
At the maximum end of the guidelines and if convicted on all counts, Ma could face a significant sentence of 150 years in prison.
ABC10 News reported Friday that when prosecutors brought the case earlier this year, they described Ma as dangerously “obsessed” with one of her young victims, noting the nonconsensual relationship started when he was just 12 years old. Love letters were also found in her classroom, the district attorney’s office said this March, and when Ma was arrested, authorities found in her wallet a picture of the boy she victimized.
The former elementary school teacher also owned jewelry bearing the child’s initials.
In the U.S., there is no national tracking system of child sexual abuse incidents in school or of perpetrators of such crimes in this setting. The CBS Reports documentary “Pledge of Silence” described a sweeping problem with under or non-reporting of sexual abuse at schools, noting that federal officials and experts have pointed to an issue with school administrators who may not contact authorities because they fear damage to the school or a teacher’s reputation.
Ma is slated to appear in court next on Sept. 21.
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