A Canton, Ohio, teacher is the latest pedophile to be convicted for having sex with students. Tiffany Eichler, 36, was a gym teacher at McKinley High School. The former educator has a child of her own but that did not stop her from crossing boundaries and having sex with two 18-year-old students and one 17-year-old student.
Eichler pleaded guilty to her actions and yesterday found out how seriously her crime was taken. She was sentenced to only 30 days in jail and 30 half-days in a non-jail reporting program administered through the criminal justice system. The sentence also includes three years of probation, counseling, 300 hours of community service, a $1K fine and paying counseling costs for victims. In addition, Eichler had to surrender her teaching license and register as a sex offender.
According to court documents, Eichler had sex with the students earlier this year in February. The encounters were primarily arranged through the phone app Snapchat and occurred at the school and in the basement of a student’s house. But Eichler felt that she was not entirely to blame for having sex with her students. Stark County Assistant Prosecutor Christy Donnelly noted that Eichler felt she was the victim and that she had told a counselor “the students at her school always approached her for sex and that she never initiated sexual activity with them…” She said, “I’d tell (students) no and they’d keep asking; it wasn’t like I was looking for it… I felt pressured into it.”
Eichler even told the court that one victim’s parents found out about the sexual encounters and tried to blackmail her into giving up money to remain silent. In her suggestion to the court that Eichler receive at least four years for her crimes, Donnelly referenced how the encounters between students took place. Local news outlet, the Canton Repository, revealed that in a sentencing report it was noted that Eichler drove to one of the victim’s home to pick him up in order to engage in sexual conduct. In addition, “she drove from New Franklin to Canton at 2:30 am in order to engage in sexual conduct with him a second time.” In regards to the third victim, Eichler called him to her classroom during non-school hours “and she herself locked (the) door in order to engage in sexual conduct.”
After sentencing on Tuesday, Eichler was immediately taken to jail to serve her 30 days.
