Melissa Marie Curtis, Ex Maryland teacher who sexually abused 14 year old no less than 20 times along with plying boy with drugs & alcohol to only serve one year jail after being sentenced to 30 years jail.
A former Maryland middle school teacher who sexually abused a 14-year-old student no less than on 20 occasions was on Friday sentenced to 30 years in prison. Nevertheless the former female educator will only have to serve just one year in jail, after a judge suspended most of her sentence.
Melissa Marie Curtis, 32, pleaded guilty to three counts of a third-degree sex offense on June 20, according to the Montgomery County District Attorney’s Office.
What if the genders were reversed?
The Montgomery County Police Department initiated an investigation in early October 2023 when the eighth-grade victim, now an adult, reported he was sexually abused by Curtis who was a teacher at Montgomery Village Middle School, according to a previous news release from the agency.
At the time of the offenses, detectives reported, the student was 14 years old and Curtis was 22.
In his ruling, Montgomery County Circuit Court Judge Theresa Chernosky suspended most of Curtis’ sentence, allowing her to serve 12 months year in jail followed by five years of supervised probation, USA Today reported.
Upon her release, Curtis must register as a sex offender for 25 years, and will not be permitted to have unsupervised contact with minors other than her children, WUSA9 reported.
It remained unclear why the former female educator had most of her sentence suspended and whether such a decision would’ve been afforded had the genders been reversed.
The victim told detectives the abuse began in 2015, when he volunteered for an after-school program that Curtis was running and ‘they were often alone together’.
Charging documents show the victim told detectives Curtis sexually abused him in a classroom, in a car, at his home, and as well as Curtis’ home ‘more than 20 times’ when he was in eighth grade. The complaint goes onto say Curtis plied the boy with drugs and alcohol multiple times.
A warrant for Curtis’s arrest was obtained on Oct. 31, 2023 and Curtis turned herself in on Nov. 7, 2023, officials reported.
At the time, Curtis had been a teacher for about two years in Montgomery County and taught at Lakelands Park Middle School as well.
Following her arrest at the time, police feared that there may have been additional victims.
Curtis left Montgomery County Public Schools in 2017, Fox 5 reported.
