BALTIMORE — A former Maryland high school Spanish teacher who allegedly engaged in sex acts with a student has been sentenced to three years in prison.
According to the Baltimore Sun, Ekatherine Pappas, 25, pleaded guilty last month in a Baltimore court to three misdemeanor counts of fourth-degree sex offense, after the state dropped additional felony counts of sexual abuse of a minor, and was sentenced on Monday. Authorities said they discovered a video, which features a 16-year-old male student, in January and announced a warrant for her arrest. She bought a plane ticket to Colombia and left the country that very day, authorities said.
Also that same day, police interviewed the victim, who reportedly said Pappas asked him to leave school grounds during school hours on two occasions in December. Both times, she allegedly drove him to his home, where she had sexual relations with him. One incident was recorded on video, police said.
"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," the victim's father said in court, speaking of the moment a school resource office of Franklin High School became aware of the video and reported it to police.
The student, who has not been identified, has reportedly not returned to school, where Pappas had only worked for one month, since the investigation was launched, the Sun reported.
“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,” his father said in his statement to the court. “Our home is no longer viewed as a safe environment, since it is the location where the assault took place.”
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All but one year and one day of Pappas’ sentence was suspended, and she was taken into custody following her hearing. In addition to jail time, she has been mandated to undergo five years of “specialized and enhanced supervised probation for sexual offenders” following her release.