Mary Jahn, former Lakewood High teacher gets 3 years for sexually abusing student

Mary Jahn Lakewood High School

Mary Jahn, a former Lakewood High School English teacher and faculty advisor for the school’s gay-straight alliance student group, was sentenced to three years in prison and lifetime registration as a sex offender for sexually abusing a 15-year-old female student. Photo: Google Street View.

LONG BEACH — A former Lakewood High School English teacher and faculty advisor for the school’s gay-straight alliance student organization was sentenced to three years in prison today and required to register for life as a sex offender for sexually abusing a 15-year-old female student.

Mary Jahn, 53, was a teacher at Lakewood High for 11 years until she was arrested last year.

Mary Jahn Lakewood High School

Mary Jahn pictured in the Lakewood High School yearbook.

Long Beach Superior Court Judge Laura Laesecke also ordered Jahn to register as a sex offender for life.

The former student, 25, who kept the abuse secret for years, told officials in 2017. She was sexually abused from July 2008 to July 2011, according to the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office.

The District Attorney’s Office charged Jahn in September with four counts of sexual penetration by a foreign object, three counts of lewd acts upon a child and two counts of oral copulation of a person under 18.

However, prosecutor Troy Davis said a deal was made so the former student wouldn’t have to testify at a trail.

As a result, Davis dropped eight charges and Jahn pleaded no contest earlier this month to one count of a lewd act with a child.

About the author

Phillip Zonkel

Award-winning journalist Phillip Zonkel spent 17 years at Long Beach's Press-Telegram, where he was the first reporter in the paper's history to have a beat covering the city's vibrant LGBTQ. He also created and ran the popular and innovative LGBTQ news blog, Out in the 562.

He won two awards and received a nomination for his reporting on the local LGBTQ community, including a two-part investigation that exposed anti-gay bullying of local high school students and the school districts' failure to implement state mandated protections for LGBTQ students.

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