Former fifth-grade teacher from San Antonio gets 27 years in child sex case

A former fifth-grade teacher from San Antonio who had two children engage in sexual conduct will spend nearly three decades in federal prison, the U.S. Department of Justice announced in a news release.

Court documents state that Keisha Lyn Swarner, 42, persuaded a 13-year-old boy to take part in sexual conduct with a 12-year-old girl.

Authorities state she facilitated meetings between the children at her home on Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland, inducing the sexual conduct through text messages she sent to the boy on a cellphone she had given him. She told him not to tell his parents, the news release said.

Swarner has been in federal custody since she was arrested April 14, 2022.

She pleaded guilty on Jan. 9 to one count of sexual performance by a child, admitting she had authorized and induced a child younger than 14 years of age to engage in sexual conduct, the news release said.

She was sentenced in federal court to 27 years and one month in prison, which will be followed by 30 years of supervised release.

U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Texas Jaime Esparza announced the sentence in the news release.

The Naval Criminal Investigative Service investigated the case, which Assistant U.S. Attorneys William Calve and Bettina Richardson prosecuted.

The case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to fight child sexual exploitation and abuse launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice.

The initiative seeks to prosecute criminals exploiting children and to rescue their victims.