Jamelah Daboubi

Introduction

Jamelah Daboubi is a former English teacher at Horizon Science Academy, a charter school in north Columbus, Ohio, who pleaded guilty in 2026 to criminal charges arising from an inappropriate relationship with a 15-year-old student. On the evening of April 2, 2025, during the school’s spring break, the boy’s aunt found Daboubi in a parked car with the student and reported what she had seen to police. The investigation that followed turned up text messages between teacher and student, and Daboubi was placed on administrative leave and then terminated. She admitted her guilt in February 2026 and was sentenced that August to six months in jail and five years of community control.

Background Information

Public reporting on the case records little about Daboubi beyond her job and the prosecution. She was 28 years old when she was sentenced and lived in the Northland area of Columbus, according to the Columbus Dispatch, and she taught English at Horizon Science Academy, a charter school in the northern part of the city. The boy involved was one of her 15-year-old students. NBC4 attributed its account of her plea to the Franklin County Prosecutor’s Office, and the station’s later reporting drew on the police report in the case. The relationship came to light only because the boy’s aunt went looking for him when she could not find him at home.

The Controversy or Incident That Led to Their Cancellation

Adjudicated vs. alleged. Her guilt was established by her own guilty plea in Franklin County Common Pleas Court, and the conviction is a matter of court record.

According to a police report cited by NBC4, at about 8 p.m. on April 2, 2025, the aunt of a 15-year-old boy could not locate her nephew and noticed that his teacher’s car was parked in front of her residence. When she approached the vehicle, she told police she witnessed a woman — a teacher from Horizon Science Academy — jump off the lap of the juvenile, who was seated in the front passenger side of the car. The encounter happened during the school’s spring break, when classes were not in session.

The boy told police that he had been having an inappropriate relationship with Daboubi, who was his English teacher, and admitted that the two had kissed and touched each other while clothed in the car. He later participated in a forensic interview at The Center for Family Safety and Healing, where he relayed the same account he had given officers. When police processed his cell phone, they found text messages between him and Daboubi that supported the alleged relationship.

Daboubi was immediately placed on administrative leave and was later terminated from the school. She was initially charged with two counts of sexual battery, and on Feb. 4, 2026, she pleaded guilty to amended charges of gross sexual imposition and unlawful sexual conduct with a minor, both fourth-degree felonies. By the time NBC4 reported the plea that March, a sentencing date had not yet been scheduled.

Public Reaction and Consequences

None of the published accounts of the case record public statements from Daboubi or from Horizon Science Academy beyond the school’s own actions, and no organized public campaign around the case is documented in them. The documented consequences began with her removal from the classroom — administrative leave immediately after the report, then termination — and continued through the criminal process. Charged initially with two counts of sexual battery, she admitted guilt to the two reduced felony counts in February 2026. NBC4 covered the plea on March 29, 2026, and returned to the case on August 10, 2026, for the sentencing hearing, where the judge imposed a jail term and a period of supervision on the sex offender docket. The Columbus Dispatch reported the outcome the same day under a headline stating that the former teacher had admitted the relationship.

Current Status

As of the most recent reporting in August 2026, Daboubi has been sentenced. She received six months of local jail time, to be followed by five years of community control on the sex offender docket. The sentence also carries standing conditions: she must comply with a behavioral health assessment and any follow-up treatment it calls for, she may not possess weapons, drugs or alcohol, and a no-contact order protects the victim and his guardian. Because she pleaded guilty, the case ended in a conviction by admission rather than a trial, and her status as a fired teacher with two felony convictions is a matter of court record.

Impact on Their Career/Life

The guilty pleas closed the door on Daboubi’s teaching career. She was terminated from Horizon Science Academy in 2025, and the two fourth-degree felony convictions entered in 2026 foreclose any return to the classroom. The sentence added six months in jail and five years of community control on the sex offender docket, with the behavioral-health, weapons and no-contact conditions attached to her supervision. From the spring evening in 2025 when a worried aunt walked up to a parked car outside her home to the sentencing hearing sixteen months later, the case moved from a school personnel matter to a criminal record that will follow Daboubi for the length of her supervision and beyond.

Sources

• NBC4 WCMH, “Ex-Columbus teacher found with student inside car sentenced in sexual battery case,” March 29, 2026. source
• NBC4 WCMH, “Ex-Columbus teacher who had inappropriate relationship with student sentenced,” August 10, 2026. source
• Columbus Dispatch, “Former Columbus charter school teacher admits inappropriate relationship,” August 10, 2026. source