Former teacher sentenced for child enticement

A former Colby woman has been sentenced to five years in prison for child enticement after it was discovered in 2023 that she had been having sexual relations with a teenage student of hers at a private school in Abbotsford.

Sally Jahnke, 46, was sentenced on Sept. 9 after pleading guilty in July to felony child enticement with sexual contact and fourth degree sexual assault, a misdemeanor. A charge of second-degree sexual assault of a child was dismissed and read into the record as part of a plea deal between Jahnke’s attorney and Clark County district attorney Melissa Inlow.

Jahnke will serve five years in state prison and another five years of extended supervision, during which time she will be barred from contacting the victim or his family and is not allowed to have contact with anyone under the age of 18 without prior permission from her probation agent. She is also ordered to attend counseling and complete any treatment and evaluations as recommended by her probation agent.

Jahnke will also be required to register as a lifetime sex offender, provide a DNA sample and pay any restitution, court costs and surcharges.

According to a criminal complaint filed against Jahnke in February of 2024, the Colby-Abbotsford Police Department was first notified of suspicious interactions between her and one of her students in January of 2023. Jahnke had been a teacher at Abbotsford Christian Academy, run by Abby Free Church, and the victim’s mother and one of the mother’s friends started noticing possibly inappropriate interactions between Jahnke and the student.

As reported to the CAPD, Jahnke would allegedly touch the victim in suspicious ways, and the two of them would “disappear from the crowd” and be found in dimly lit hallways. The victim’s mother discovered that her son was communicating with Jahnke through Snapchat, which automatically deletes messages after they are viewed.

The mother’s concerns were reported to the church’s elders in October of 2022, according to the complaint, but an investigation by the church found no evidence of misconduct. However, Jahnke was prohibited “from teaching catechism or speaking with the victim outside of designated church and school times.”

In early 2023, the victim’s mother took a screenshot of a Snapchat exchange between her son and Jahnke, and brought it to the church elders, who advised her to report it to police.

During a series of interviews with police in 2023, the victim eventually admitted that he and Jahnke had inappropriate physical contact on more than one occasion. When approached by police, Jahnke allowed an officer to look through her phone and initially agreed to do an interview at the police station before getting an attorney and then declining to answer questions.

A detective at the Clark County Sheriff’s Office searched both Jahnke’s phone and one owned by the victim, but did not find anything incriminating. However, messages viewed by officers indicated that Jahnke had sent photos to the victim and then asked him to delete them right away.

Jahnke was arrested and charged in February of 2023, and shortly thereafter, she posted a $10,000 signature bond. She waived her right to a preliminary hearing, and the court found sufficient evidence for her to be bound over for trial.

A jury trial was originally scheduled for next month, but at a hearing on July 15, Jahnke pled guilty to two of the three charges against her, with the third being dismissed.