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WARNING: This story includes graphic descriptions of sexual misconduct involving minors.
A former Grade 8 teacher in Ontario who pleaded guilty to sex crimes, after persuading students to exchange explicit selfies with her, has been sentenced to four years in prison.
Kelly-Anne Jennings, 41, stood in a Kawartha Lakes, Ont., courtroom Thursday as a judge delivered the sentence.
“The impact of having a child perform sexual acts on camera for the gratification of an adult is severe,” Ontario Court Justice Nathan N. Baker said.
Jennings pleaded guilty earlier this month to six charges involving three boys, including child luring, invitation to sexual touching and making child sexual abuse and exploitation material — referred to as child pornography in the Criminal Code until recently.
Additional charges, including sexual assault and sexual interference involving a fourth complainant, were stayed at the Crown’s request.
After Baker read his decision, two officers took Jennings into custody and led her out of the courtroom. Her name will be added to the national sex offender registry, and she was ordered to provide a DNA sample.
The mother of one of the victims recently told the court “people don’t want to believe women can do this.”
“But this wasn’t a mistake,” she wrote in a victim impact statement. “This was abuse. It was calculated. It was predatory. It was criminal.”
When the allegations against Jennings first surfaced last year, she was placed on unpaid leave from her job in Port Hope, Ont., about 100 kilometres east of Toronto.
The Peterborough Victoria Northumberland and Clarington Catholic District School Board said it formally “terminated Ms. Jennings’ employment,” earlier this month.
“I want to acknowledge the profound and ongoing impact this case has had on our school communities,” the board’s director of education, Stephen O’Sullivan, said in a statement emailed to CBC News. “My hope is that today’s outcome provides some measure of closure for those affected.”
A publication ban covers the names of the three teenage victims. The court order also prevents other information from being shared that could identify the students, such as the name of the publicly funded school where Jennings taught.
According to an agreed statement of facts filed in court, Jennings began sending suggestive pictures and videos to the three former students over Snapchat in the summer of 2023, when the boys were 14 or 15 years old.
The images grew increasingly explicit, with Jennings sharing a picture of herself in a bathtub, then fully nude images and ultimately a video of herself masturbating.
She demanded the victims send nude images of themselves, telling one boy “just do it.” Two victims agreed.
Jennings blamed heavy drinking — telling at least one boy she was “tipsy” — after an instance of marital infidelity involving her husband.
“I appreciate infidelity in her relationship was causing her to drink,” the judge said. “But in no way can this rationalize her actions.”
Jennings was first charged in August 2024 after police said a male student told his mother about inappropriate physical contact with a teacher on a class trip. Port Hope police later said three more complainants had come forward, which led to further charges.
Dr. Krystal L. Kelly, a clinical and forensic psychologist who met with Jennings, found the former teacher presented “a low-moderate risk of sexual offending in the future.” Kelly recommended therapy and said Jennings could pose a lower risk if she were to pursue further treatment.
In a victim impact statement, one victim’s mother wrote that her son “does not want to be in school, and we struggle to keep his attention on his studies. This breaks my heart, as that predator sitting in the courtroom stole that trust away.”
“The emotional scars of this abuse,” she said, “will follow my son for the rest of his life.”
