American female teacher arrested for months-long sexual assault of 15-year-old student

A former Ohio high school teacher has pleaded guilty to sexually assaulting a teenage student following a months-long relationship that investigators say involved thousands of text messages and repeated physical contact.

Jamelah Daboubi, 28, entered her guilty plea in Franklin County Common Pleas Court last month on charges of gross sexual imposition and unlawful sexual conduct with a minor. She had previously faced two counts of sexual battery before authorities amended the charges.

Daboubi was a teacher at Horizon Science Academy in Columbus when she began the relationship with the then-15-year-old 10th grader. The assault came to light in April 2025 when the boy's mother discovered the pair together in her car. 

The student told police he and his teacher had been in a relationship for months, involving kissing, touching, and an exchange of thousands of text messages in which the two declared their love for each other. Investigators recovered the messages from his phone, painting a picture of a relationship that had been carefully cultivated over a significant period of time.

What made the case particularly striking was the volume of communication between the two. Thousands of messages exchanged between a teacher and her minor student, many of them containing declarations of love, point to a relationship that was not impulsive but deliberately maintained. Daboubi, as the adult and authority figure in the dynamic, bore full responsibility for allowing it to develop and persist.

Daboubi was arrested shortly after the discovery and fired from her teaching position at Horizon Science Academy. She had previously faced two counts of sexual battery before prosecutors amended the charges to gross sexual imposition and unlawful sexual conduct with a minor.

She now faces a maximum of 18 months behind bars when she is sentenced, though the court has recommended she instead serve five years of community control, continue counselling, surrender her teaching licence, and perform community service. She will also be required to register as a sex offender, a designation she will carry regardless of whether she serves prison time.

The sentencing recommendation has drawn attention in its own right. For a relationship that spanned months, involved a minor, and required the intervention of a family member to uncover, many have questioned whether the outcome reflects the seriousness of the crime and whether a male teacher found in identical circumstances would be facing the same recommendation of community service over a custodial sentence.

Daboubi's sentencing date has not yet been announced.

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