Related Articles San Jose teacher accused of having oral sex with student, sending explicit photos EAST PALO ALTO — A 35-year-old teacher was convicted this week of performing sexual acts with two teenage male students inside her East Palo Alto charter school classroom.

Danielle Matko of Belmont was found guilty Tuesday on four counts stemming from encounters with a 15-year-old student from East Palo Alto Aspire Phoenix Academy in late 2015, according to the San Mateo County District Attorney’s Office.

Matko, who was an English teacher at the school at the time of her arrest in December 2015, was convicted of one count of oral copulation with a minor and three counts of lewd acts on a minor age 14 or 15.

Wednesday, Matko was convicted of one count of lewd act on a minor stemming from an incident with a second student, also 15.

Matko is facing a sentence of about six years behind bars and will have to register as a sex offender, according to San Mateo County Chief Deputy District Attorney Karen Guidotti. Matko is scheduled to be sentenced Dec. 1.

“Female teachers who commit offenses such as this are fairly few and far between,” Guidotti said. “But we see it.”

Officials with East Palo Alto Aspire Phoenix Academy referred all questions regarding Matko to the charter school’s corporate communications department.

“East Palo Alto Phoenix Academy is committed to the safety and security of each of our students,” spokesperson Morgan Searcy said in a statement. “When the allegations were first made in this case, we chose to terminate employment of Ms. Matko. We also cooperated with law enforcement’s investigation of the allegations.”

Matko denied the allegations and did not testify during the trial, Guidotti said. Her attorney did not return a message seeking comment.

All of the purported crimes are believed to have taken place between Sept. 1 and Nov. 14, 2015 in Matko’s classroom, during free periods and after school, authorities said. Prosecutors say Matko was talking with one of the boys in her classroom when she showed her bare breasts and allowed the student to touch them. She also touched the boy sexually, according to prosecutors. On another occasion, she performed oral copulation on the boy.

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Redwood City: Hit-and-run leaves pedestrian on life support Prosecutors allege Matko showed the first victim and a second 15-year-old student her bare breasts on another occasion.

One key piece of evidence was a cell phone screen shot Matko’s naked torso taken by one of the boys, Guidotti said.

“There was no doubt it was her,” Guidotti said.

The allegations surfaced after the boys told friends about them, and one of the friends contacted a legal-aid attorney, who in turn notified police.