SAN DIEGO (CNS) - A former Mount Carmel High School teacher arrested earlier this year for sex crimes involving an underage female student pleaded guilty this week.
Stacy Michelle Walker, 40, is expected to be sentenced next month to three years in state prison following her pleas Tuesday to counts of sexual penetration by a foreign object, oral copulation of a person under 18 and contacting a minor with the intent to commit a sexual offense, according to the San Diego County District Attorney's Office.
Walker's plea included an admission that she took advantage of a position of trust or confidence to commit the offense.
Walker was arrested in March and initially charged with 17 felonies for what a prosecutor called "a highly inappropriate relationship" that began when the victim was 15 years old and continued until 2020, when the victim was 18.
According to police, the interactions between Walker and the victim began with sexual conversations that led to exchanges of explicit text messages, photographs and videos, and then sex acts.
A criminal complaint states the crimes occurred in 2018 and 2019. The victim reported the offenses to police last July, according to Lt. Dan Sayasane of the San Diego Police Department.
Walker was placed on leave last summer when the allegations arose. Around the time of Walker's arrest, Mt. Carmel's principal wrote to parents that -- without naming Walker -- the teacher in question had not taught at Mt. Carmel that school year.
A 2015 article from the school's student newspaper identified Walker as a drama and theater tech teacher. It also stated she is a former Mount Carmel High student.
"I love being back. I love being a Sundevil again," she told the MC Sun. "I was interviewing for jobs at a couple other schools but in my heart I always wanted to come back here."
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