Suburban KC teacher pleads guilty to sexually assaulting child, sending nudes to students
A suburban Kansas City substitute teacher who was arrested last year when a group of eighth grade girls reported receiving his nudes during a slumber party has pleaded guilty to eight felonies, including molesting a child.
Jason L. Carey, 43, admitted to all 12 criminal charges, including four misdemeanors, filed against him during a hearing Tuesday in Cass County Circuit Court. Carey, who taught at Belton Middle School for one week before students reported him, has been held without bond in the county jail since September 2022.
Belton police began investigating Carey after the principal of the middle school heard from an eighth grader that she had received a series of inappropriate messages from him over Snapchat.
The student, described in court papers as Confidential Victim #1, told a school resource officer that she met Carey during school hours and they exchanged social media handles.
Messages from Carey started off as innocuous but became increasingly strange, she said, and later included comments about her body.
She and several other middle schoolers communicated with Carey, who went by ““thundergod714” and “thunder_god7,” during a Friday night sleepover. They were sent videos of Carey masturbating, according to charging documents.
Another girl, named as Confidential Victim #2, reported that she added Carey as a Snapchat friend. He began sending her messages that evening, she said, including asking “if she was alone and if her parents ever let her leave the house.”
Four video messages saved by the girls were shared with police. One showed Carey’s face and a tattoo covering his shoulder and bicep area, according to court documents.
Investigators were later contacted by the mother of an 8-year-old girl who reported being assaulted by Carey.
The 8-year-old, named in court papers as Confidential Victim #3, reported to authorities that she knew Carey as an employee “at her old school” when she visited the Belton home where Carey rented a room.
She had gone there to meet her 10-year-old friend for a sleepover, she told investigators. During the visit, she said, Carey made her watch pornographic videos, including one that featured a girl “probably her age,” and molested her, according to court papers.
Belton Superintendent Andrew Underwood last year referred to the incident — without mentioning Carey by name — in a letter to families, describing a police investigation of a substitute teacher having “inappropriate communications with some students.” Carey was identified as previously working for Belton’s School-Age Childcare, an after-school program offered for children kindergarten through sixth grade.
Carey worked for the district through a third-party company that provided substitute teaching staff for Belton. After the report, the superintendent said “appropriate action” was taken by his employer.
In his guilty plea, Carey admitted to two counts of enticement of a child, two counts of molestation of a child under 12, statutory sodomy, and two counts of promoting child pornography. He also admitted to four misdemeanors of furnishing pornographic materials to a child.
A sentencing hearing for Carey is scheduled to take place Dec. 13.
The Star’s Sarah Ritter contributed to this report.
This story was originally published October 11, 2023 at 6:22 PM.
