BOSTON — A former Boston teacher has been sentenced to federal prison after using social media to exchange nude photos with teen girls across the United States, the United Kingdom, and Canada, and having graphic sexual chat sessions with the girls while on the job.
John Magee Gavin, 35, of Brookline, was sentenced to 10 years in prison, to be followed by five years of supervised release, U.S. Attorney Leah Foley said in a statement on Friday. U.S. Senior District Court Judge F. Dennis Saylor IV handed down his sentence.
Gavin pleaded guilty in December to one count each of coercion and enticement of a minor, receipt of child pornography, and possession of child pornography.
A federal grand jury indicted Gavin in July. He remains in federal custody, Foley said.
Prosecutors said Gavin, a former science teacher at Josiah Quincy Upper School in Boston, coerced and enticed at least one underage female to engage in sexual conversations online and asked that she produce and send child sexual abuse material of herself.
Gavin previously worked as a sixth-grade teacher at the Academy of the Pacific Rim Charter Public School in Hyde Park and was a paraprofessional with the Brookline Public Schools.
Gavin communicated with at least 20 underage girls around the world and had sexualized conversations with the victims while teaching in class, prosecutors said.
He possessed child sexual abuse material depicting rape of both female and male minors, ranging in age from approximately five to 17 years old, prosecutors said.
In January 2025, prosecutors said Gavin was identified as the owner of a Discord account who messaged at least 20 underage females between the ages of 12 and 17 years old. The girls were from across the country, including Georgia, Texas, Tennessee, West Virginia, North Carolina, and Florida, as well as the United Kingdom and Canada.
In these chats, Gavin disclosed that he was a teacher, engaged in sexual conversations, and often asked the minors to send him pictures of themselves engaged in sexually explicit conduct – knowing that the children were underage, prosecutors said.
Local authorities arrested Gavin in February 2025 and charged him in Brookline District Court with enticing a child under 16, possession of child pornography, and other offenses.
A forensic review of evidence seized from Gavin’s Brookline residence revealed approximately 147 files (94 images and 53 videos) on his iPhone depicting child sexual abuse material, Foley said.
Prosecutors said further analysis of Gavin’s Discord account identified numerous chats with underage females in which he engaged in online masturbation sessions with the minors.
He also solicited images from and exchanged images with the minors, and engaged in sexualized conversations with the minors while he was at school. Prosecutors said the chats also included conversations in which Gavin expressed his sexual interest in certain students at Josiah Quincy.
In one conversation, prosecutors said Gavin discussed his sexual interest in a freshman student at the school where he was employed as a teacher and fantasized about having sex with her.,
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