TACOMA, Wash. — With a dramatically different look, a former Tacoma teacher who pleaded guilty to child rape learned she won't be heading to prison.
A Pierce County judge has sentenced Keshia Shaw to sex offender treatment instead.
Shaw could leave jail as soon as this afternoon because of a medical condition that was apparent as soon as she walked into court.
She entered court Tuesday morning looking nothing like the Tacoma middle school teacher of 2012.
Her facial hair, according to court documents, is the result of polycystic ovarian syndrome.
The 34-year-old also has multiple sclerosis.
She asked sentencing judge John McCarthy to release her from jail immediately.
"I'm worried that prolonged stay here will turn my conditions into a 200-pound 3-year-old," Shaw said in court.
At issue for the judge: Can this former Tacoma teacher who admitted to having sex more than once with her sixth-grade male student be rehabilitated?
"You were in that special position of trust, you violated it and you did it for your own sexual gratification," McCarthy told Shaw in court.
The victim came forward about the sexual encounters when he was 17 years old, after hearing a church sermon on child molestation.
The victim, now an adult, chose not to be in Pierce County superior court today.
Shaw, a mother of two girls, did get a chance to speak.
She never apologized to her victim.
"I take full responsibility for my actions and non-actions that have led us to be here today," said Shaw.
After hearing from the school district and criminal justice witnesses, McCarthy sentenced Shaw to at least five years of a Sexual Offender Sentence Alternative (SOS).
Shaw will receive treatment outside of prison.
Just as she came in, she left and had no comment on her fate.
Prosecutors did not contest the sentence, as this is what was agreed to in an earlier plea agreement.
Shaw's attorney successfully made the case for her immediate release, saying the jail simply doesn't have the medications she needs.
Shaw will be on GPS monitoring, house arrest for six months.
The former teacher cannot have contact with minors other than her two girls, and she will have to register as a sex offender for the rest of her life.
KIRO
