Ex-Tacoma teacher found guilty of raping two boys

Melbourne, Apr 21 (ANI): An ex-school teacher has been found guilty of abducting one of her students, and raping him and his 15-year-old brother.

Judge D. Gary Steiner at Pierce County Superior Court convicted 33-year-old Jennifer Leigh Rice of first-degree kidnapping with sexual motivation, first-degree child molesting and two counts of third-degree child rape.ice is facing over 25 years in prison, and she now remains in jail pending her sentencing on June 5, reports The Daily Telegraph.

The court heard that she took a 10-year-old student she taught in her first year at McKinley Elementary School from his home in Tacoma, and later drove over 100 miles to have sex with him at a rest area on Interstate 90 on August 11, 2007.

Rice was also convicted of having sex with the boy's 15-year-old brother earlier in the month.

Court records have revealed that the boys' father told investigators that Rice showered his younger son with attention until about July 2007, before she was told to stop coming to the house.

According to a police affidavit, soon after Rice was arrested, she confessed of having had sex with the boy four or five times previously, including once when she sneaked into his house while his parents were asleep.

However, there have been no details on her relationship with the older boy, except that he was not one of her students.

The News Tribune of Tacoma reported previously that Rice resigned from earlier jobs teaching Spanish at Spanaway Lake High in the suburban Bethel School District and as a second-grade teacher at Southworth Elementary in Yelm, between Tacoma and Olympia, both when her professional judgment was questioned after a year on the job. (ANI)