Elementary school teacher pleads 'No Contest' to assaulting students

A former second-grade teacher at Rowland Elementary School in Rowland Heights pled No Contest on Monday to sexually assaulting five students.

The Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office says 54-year-old Rowland Heights resident Jose Cruz Martinez entered a No Contest plea in a Pomona courtroom to four felony counts of lewd acts upon a child and one misdemeanor count of child molesting.

"The defendant inappropriately touched four girls ages 7 and 8 on the school campus between August 2017 and April 2018," said a news release from the LA County District Attorney's Office.

Martinez faces five years in state prison.

Sentencing is set for March 21, 2019 in Los Angeles Superior Court in Pomona.