Editor's note: A previous version of this article incorrectly identified the name of Megan Carlisle's husband.
A former Elizabethtown Area Middle School employee will spend eight to 16 years in state prison for sexually abusing two middle school boys in 2023.
In February, Megan Carlisle pleaded guilty to two counts of involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, two counts of statutory sexual assault and 12 related charges stemming from her sexual contact with two middle school students. She is also charged with two counts of institutional sexual assault.
Carlisle, who worked as a paraprofessional and in-school-suspension monitor at Elizabethtown Area Middle School until May 2023, performed sexual acts on the 14-year-old and 15-year-old boys and bought them gifts including vape pods and an aquarium.
The boys and their families were not present Monday at Carlisle’s sentencing, allowing her family to speak at length on the circumstances leading to the abuse.
In the victims’ absence, Assistant District Attorney Fritz Haverstick reminded the court of the severity of Carlisle’s crimes.
“If this (was) a male teacher that was preying on two female students, we would call him a predator,” Haverstick said. “There is no difference between a male teacher doing this and a female.”
According to the National Sexual Violence Resource Center, 96% of perpetrators of child sexual abuse are male.
Haverstick said he does not believe Carlisle feels remorse for her actions, pointing to her no contest plea to institutional sexual assault in February.
A no contest plea is not an admission of guilt but is considered a conviction. Carlisle acknowledged that prosecutors had enough evidence that a jury could convict her had the charges gone to trial.
Carlisle’s ‘break’
Defense attorney Chris Sarno painted a portrait of Carlisle’s life as one that has been damaged by drug use and abuse.
Carlisle’s mother abused drugs while pregnant. Sarno added that as a child, Carlisle experienced frequent physical and sexual abuse.
The effects of Carlisle’s troubled childhood lingered through an abusive first marriage, Sarno said. But upon meeting her second husband, David Carlisle, and having two daughters, Carlisle made an attempt to turn her life around.
In 2021, Carlisle’s youngest daughter was diagnosed with a rare form of cancer.
A few months later, Carlisle was sequestered in a hospital room while her daughter underwent radiation treatment for her illness. With the COVID-19 pandemic in full swing, Carlisle cut out human contact for weeks, afraid of endangering her immunocompromised daughter.
The stress of her daughter’s illness and the isolation of radiation treatment caused her to “break,” in Sarno’s words.
“Her daughter luckily recovered, but Megan did not,” Sarno said.
Carlisle spiraled into alcohol and prescription drug abuse to cope with post-traumatic stress and anxiety disorders, Sarno said. When friends encouraged her to find a job to keep her occupied, she took a position at Elizabethtown Area Middle School.
Carlisle’s mental health and addictions turned her into someone she no longer recognizes.
“She looks back and doesn’t understand who that person was,” said Sarno, insisting Carlisle felt remorse after the treatment she received following her arrest.
‘You failed them’
Carlisle’s two daughters and ex-husband spoke at Monday’s hearing. They described her as a role model and said she calls them every day from prison.
David emphasized his ex-wife’s longtime desire to provide her girls with the happy childhood she’d been deprived of.
“Megan became the mom she wished she did have,” David said.
For years, Carlisle coached her kids’ cheer practice, chaired their school’s parent-teacher organization, ran an annual book fair and served as a Girl Scouts troop leader, David said.
David described how his ex-wife wanted to help so-called “troubled” teenagers and believed that she took the job at Elizabethtown with “the best intentions.”
David urged Lancaster County Judge Dennis Reinaker not to separate Carlisle from her daughters, plainly stating that she would benefit more from therapy than a prison sentence.
Testifying before Reinaker, Carlisle’s voice shook as she described averaging two hours of sleep per night and growing increasingly reliant on substances in the months leading up to her employment at the middle school.
She admitted the online course that certified her to work at the school did not prepare her to supervise children experiencing their own traumas, especially because she hadn’t healed from her childhood and was struggling with a host of mental health issues.
“Never did it occur to me that surviving and processing were not the same,” Carlisle said.
Carlisle apologized to the victims and their families, despite their absence. She promised Reinaker he would never see her on the "wrong side" of court again.
Reinaker highlighted the support Carlisle received, including letters from three Lancaster County Prison employees. He said defendants rarely get even one letter from a prison employee.
Though he acknowledged the hardships Carlisle faced, he said they were not an excuse for her behavior.
“You were in a position of responsibility with these children. You failed them,” Reinaker said. “Children are supposed to go to school and be safe.”
