PTI FOR SEXTING STUDENT
Former teacher gets 36-month diversionary program for pleading guilty to endangering the welfare of a child through sexual conduct >>
TRENTON >> The former Ewing Public Schools teacher who sexually exploited a teenage student last year has pleaded guilty to smutty behavior.
Chelsea Hahn, 26, of Ewing, admits she engaged in sexual conduct that would impair or debauch the morals of a child. The former Ewing High School teacher confessed June 24 to one count of second-degree endangering the welfare of a child through sexual conduct, records show.
Hahn, however, has been accepted into New Jersey’s Pretrial Intervention, a diversionary program for firsttime offenders. If she successfully completes her 36-month PTI program, which consists of rehabilitative services, the charges against her will be dismissed.
The Ewing Board of Education terminated Hahn from employment effective June 30, 2018, amid criminal allegations she kissed a 17-year-old male student inside her classroom and sent nude photos and explicit text messages asking him to have sex.
Hahn worked as an English teacher at Ewing High and earned $44,500 per year before getting canned. Ewing Police arrested her June 1, 2018, issuing a complaint summons charging her with three counts of endangering the welfare of a child through sexual conduct. Second-degree offenses like these typically carry a presumption of imprisonment for duly convicted defendants.
A grand jury handed up an indictment on Dec. 12, 2018, charging Hahn with three counts of endangering the welfare of a child through sexual conduct, court records show.
Represented by private defense attorney Edward A. Cridge, the disgraced educator Hahn pleaded guilty as a legal prerequisite to being admitted into PTI. If she violates any conditions of PTI, her PTI will be terminated and she would face a harsher punishment for debauching the morals of a child.
Hahn will have no record of conviction if she completes PTI, and she may subsequently file for an expungement to remove the arrest record and criminal complaint from her background.
Career disappointment
Before Hahn got fired, Ewing Public Schools Superintendent Michael Nitti and Ewing High School Principal Edward Chmiel issued a joint statement saying they were “deeply saddened” by Hahn’s arrest. “We have the highest expectations for professional behavior on the part of our staff,” the school officials said, “and the well-being of our students is our foremost concern.”
Hahn on social media identified herself as a graduate of The College of New Jersey (TCNJ) with a bachelor’s degree in English secondary education and a master’s degree in English. She first began working in the Ewing Public Schools District as a substitute teacher in April 2017 before getting appointed as a certified replacement English teacher at Ewing High School effective Sept. 1, 2017, through June 30, 2018, records show.
A LinkedIn profile listed Hahn as a substitute teacher in the West Windsor-Plainsboro Regional School District and Robbinsville High School from August 2016 to March 2017. On Twitter, she said she was an adjunct professor at TCNJ.