Hollywood Teacher Convicted Of Child Porn Gets 30 Years In Jail

HOLLYWOOD, CA — A former elementary school teacher convicted of making pornographic videos and images of ex-students was sentenced to 30 years in prison Thursday.

Sean D. Sigler, a 56-year-old man who taught at Hollywood's Gardner Street Elementary School and Bret Hart Elementary School in Burbank, pleaded guilty in 2019 to two counts of production of child pornography. U.S. District Judge John A. Kronstadt Thursday called his actions "inexcusable" and said "ruining the lives of minors is unspeakable."

Prosecutors said Sigler taught the victim in fifth-grade, and remained in touch with her after she left his class. He used his position as a former teacher to gain his parents trust, before exploiting that trust for sexual purposes according to prosecutors.

Sigler routinely took the girl to his house and gave her alcohol and pills over the course of 15 months, prosecutors said. He began having sex with the girl when she was 15, creating several explicit videos and photos in the process.

The former teacher also photoshopped the face of a different former student, who was also underage, onto a photo of his first victim's naked body. A 2018 search of Sigler's devices found over 5,000 child pornography photos including unknown and previously identified minors.