Ex-teacher gets prison for sexually assaulting 15-year-old girl
A former charter school teacher in Jersey City has been sentenced to five years in state prison for sexually assaulting a female eighth grader.
Lauren Coyle-Mitchell, 36, must serve 85% of the sentence she received Aug. 2 in Bergen County Superior Court before being eligible for parole with lifetime supervision under the No Early Release Act.
She also must register as a Megan’s Law offender and is banned from ever holding a teaching or government job again under the terms of the sentence.
Prosecutors said the sexual assault happened at the married teacher's Lyndhurst home in 2015, when Coyle-Mitchell was 31 and the victim was 15.
At the time, Coyle-Mitchell taught second grade at Lena Edwards Academic Charter School, where the victim also was a student.
She was arrested again in 2016 after prosecutors said she violated a court order by contacting the alleged victim.
She pleaded guilty in January to second-degree aggravated sexual assault. She originally had been charged with a first-degree aggravated sexual assault and second-degree official misconduct and child endangerment.
Coyle-Mitchell had her elementary teaching certificates, including one for teaching disabled students, revoked by the state Board of Examiners in April.
The investigation began in 2015 after other teachers reported "inappropriate" interactions between Coyle-Mitchell and the victim during a class trip, NJ.com reported.
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