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WARNING: This story includes graphic descriptions of sexual misconduct involving minors.
A former eighth-grade teacher in Ontario who pleaded guilty to sex crimes after persuading her students to exchange explicit selfies with her has been sentenced to four years in prison.
Kelly-Anne Jennings, 41, was in the courtroom in Kawartha Lakes, Ont., on Thursday as a judge handed down the sentence.
“The impact of a child performing sexual acts on camera for the gratification of an adult is severe,” said Ontario Court Justice Nathan N. Baker.
Jennings pleaded guilty earlier this month to six charges involving three children, including luring children, inviting them to sexually touch them and making child sexual exploitation and abuse material, which until recently was called child pornography in the Criminal Code.
Additional charges, including sexual assault and sexual interference involving a fourth complainant, were stayed at the request of the Crown.
After Baker read her decision, two officers detained Jennings and led her out of the courtroom. His name will be added to the national sex offender registry and he was ordered to provide a DNA sample.
The mother of one of the victims recently said in court that “people don’t want to believe that women can do this.”
“But this was not a mistake,” he wrote in a victim impact statement. “This was abuse. It was calculated. It was predatory. It was criminal.”
When allegations against Jennings first emerged last year, he was placed on unpaid leave from his job in Port Hope, Ont., about 100 kilometers east of Toronto. The Peterborough Victoria Northumberland and Clarington Catholic District School Board recentlyLy announced that she was “no longer employed.”
A publication ban covers the names of the three teenage victims. The court order also prevents the sharing of other information that could identify 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 photos and videos to the three former students via Snapchat in the summer of 2023, when the boys were 14 or 15 years old.
The images became increasingly explicit, with Jennings sharing a photo of herself in a bathtub, then completely naked images and finally a video of her masturbating.
He demanded victims send naked images of themselves and told one boy to “just do it.” Two victims agreed.
Jennings blamed excessive alcohol consumption (she told at least one child that she was “drunk”) after a case of marital infidelity involving her husband.
“I appreciate that the infidelity in your relationship led you to drink,” the judge said. “But in no way can this rationalize his actions.”
Jennings was first charged in August 2024 after police said a student told his mother about inappropriate physical contact with a teacher on a field trip. Port Hope police later said three more complainants had come forward, leading to more charges.
Dr. Krystal L. Kelly, a clinical and forensic psychologist who met with Jennings, found that the former teacher presented “a low to moderate risk of committing future sexual offenses.” Kelly recommended therapy and said Jennings could pose a lower risk if additional treatment was followed.
In a victim impact statement, the mother of one victim wrote thher son “doesn’t want to be in school and we have a hard time keeping his attention on his studies. This breaks my heart because that predator sitting in the courtroom stole that trust from him.”
“The emotional scars of this abuse,” she said, “will accompany my son for the rest of his life.”
