Ex-San Bruno teacher sentenced for molesting elementary school students

(KRON) — A former San Bruno elementary school teacher, 34-year-old Jeremy Pakyin Yeh, was sentenced to serve 25 years in prison on Friday. Yeh had faced a maximum sentence of 425 years in prison.

Earlier this year, a San Mateo County jury convicted Yeh of molesting four students. The students were girls in 1st grade and 2nd grade. Jurors found the former teacher guilty on all 17 felony counts.

Yeh taught 1st and 2nd grades at El Crystal Elementary School and Decimal Allen Elementary School in San Bruno.

A lawsuit filed against Yeh and the San Bruno Park School District by one of the victim’s parents states, “Over the course of YEH’s employment with SBPSD 2016 through 2021, YEH repeatedly engaged in lewd acts with minor students at ECES and AES, subjecting multiple victim students to ongoing sexual battery, assault, molestation and harassment.”

Inside his classroom, Yeh groped a 6-year-old girl under her underwear behind the teacher’s desk, court documents state.

“Multiple ECES students told administrators that YEH pulled down a female student’s pants while hugging her,” the lawsuit states. Students who reported abuse were disciplined for “spreading rumors,” and administrators did nothing to stop the abuse, attorneys wrote.

Prosecutors said, “The first victim came forward in 2018 but was called a liar by the administration at El Crystal Elementary School.”

The teacher groomed his young students, attorneys said. Grooming behaviors included inviting certain students to spend time alone with him in the classroom, “lavishing inappropriate affection” on victims, and contacting students outside of school using online gaming platforms and other applications, attorneys wrote.

After the first victim was accused of lying for speaking out, Yeh continued to molest more students, according to the district attorney’s office. In 2022, another victim came forward. San Bruno police officers arrested the teacher in 2023.