A former Florida high school teacher was sentenced to 12 years in prison for sexually abusing students.
Mark Lua, 32, told Circuit Judge Thomas Dannheisser on Wednesday that he wanted to raise his daughter and would volunteer for castration if that would spare him a prison sentence, the Pensacola News Journal reported, but the judge ignored his request.
The former English teacher at Booker T. Washington High School in Pensacola pleaded guilty last year to promoting a sexual performance by a child, unlawful sexual activity with minors and two counts of unlawful sexual activity with minors.
Prosecutors say he sexually assaulted an 18-year-old former student, had sex with an underage student and coerced another to send him a sexually explicit video.
‘My actions were despicable,’ Lua said. ‘I do believe that punishment is necessary, and I am requesting chemical castration not only as a punishment but as an act of solidarity to show how sorry I am for everything. If your honor is so inclined, I am even willing to undergo physical castration if that way I can stay home and raise my daughter.’
Judge Dannheisser ignored the request before sentencing him to 12 years in jail followed by 15 years of probation.
Prosecutor Erin Ambrose told the judge Lua targeted vulnerable girls.
‘He seemed to seek out girls that came from unstable or troubled homes,’ Ambrose said. ‘He manipulated them, and he betrayed them because he was a teacher.’
Lua was arrested three separate times in 2019 after there were allegations he coerced a student into sending him an inappropriate video, that he had sex with an underage student and that he had sexually assaulted an 18-year-old former student.
His first arrest was on January 17, 2019, when a school resource officer received a tip off that Lua was having inappropriate communications with minors.
He later admitted to having set up a fake Instagram profile in order to reach out to underage teens for sex.
He was arrested for a second time less than two weeks later on January 30. On that occasion a juvenile student reported that he had sex with her at his home.
The following week, he was arrested for a third time on February 6 after a former student, who was now an adult, went to the authorities to say that she had been sexually assaulted by him.
During his hearing Lua said that he suffered from a genetic disorder called neurofibromatosis that caused the growth of painful tumors on his skin. Lua said the condition resulted in frequent panic attacks.
‘If I’m with my family or when I might sit down and read a book, I think about the tumors, and I think “Oh my God, this might be my last day on earth,”‘ he said.
The prosecutor dismissed such claims in court.
‘This condition did not seem to debilitate him while he was trolling the halls, looking for students to have sex with,’ Ambrose said.
