A former after-school employee at a Clairemont high school was sentenced Wednesday to one year of probation and ordered to register as a sex offender for inappropriately touching teenage victims at his workplace.
Stephen Tyler Wescott, 31, who worked for the San Diego Unified School District's after-school program dubbed IMIN at James Madison High School, also exposed himself to the victims and maintained inappropriate communications with them over social media and text messages, according to the San Diego City Attorney's Office.
Wescott worked in the after-school program from the summer of 2017 through June 2018, with the charged offenses occurring in the spring of 2018, prosecutors said.
After pleading guilty to charges of sexual battery and sending harmful with the intent to seduce a minor, Wescott received the probation term, as well as a 120-day jail sentence which was stayed pending the completion of his probation. He also must register as a sex offender for a minimum of 10 years.
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According to the City Attorney's Office, Wescott talked with the two victims, then ages 15 and 17, about sex and masturbation. He later sent a picture of his penis to the older girl and requested she send him nude photos of herself, the City Attorney's Office said.
Prosecutors allege he also inappropriately touched one of the victims in an empty classroom and groped another victim on a school district-sponsored camping trip. According to the City Attorney's Office, the girls kept screenshots of their communications with Wescott, and one of the girls recorded a video of him masturbating under his desk on one occasion while he was supervising a classroom full of students.
"For an after-school instructor to abuse his position of trust is especially disturbing because schools are supposed to be a safe haven where children are protected from predators," San Diego City Attorney Mara W. Elliott said. "Parents and guardians should monitor their children's behavior for changes in dress, eating patterns, and lack of interest in activities they once enjoyed, and always question their activities and interactions with adults."
