A 24-year-old English teacher at Beaver Falls High School is facing felony charges after investigators say she sent a 16-year-old student sexually explicit text messages and roughly 20 to 30 photos of herself in lingerie over a two-week span in early June. Sarah Massa, hired by the Big Beaver Falls Area School District less than a year earlier, has been removed from duties involving students while the criminal case moves through the courts.
According to a criminal complaint reported by WTAE, the Beaver Falls High principal came to believe Massa was grooming the teenager after growing suspicious of her interactions with him. Investigators say Massa began texting the student just days after the school year ended, and the sexual messaging continued for about two weeks in June, according to WPXI. The complaint alleges the student and Massa exchanged phone numbers, and that she wanted to spend time with him without his mother's knowledge.
Investigators say the two exchanged 3,711 iMessages that were later deleted, per the criminal complaint. Police say Massa admitted to deleting the messages once the situation came to light. She reportedly told her own mother about the texts before the school district learned of the allegations and notified authorities.
Special Treatment in the Classroom
Beyond the alleged messages, the complaint describes a pattern of favoritism inside Massa's classroom. She allegedly let the student sleep during class, gave him hall passes, and allowed him to leave other classes to come sit in her room. Investigators say she also suggested there was sexual tension between herself and the teenager.
In a statement referenced in the complaint, Massa reportedly said, “I'm not at all going to deny he and I talked and some conversations definitely got out of hand in terms of jokes and flirting.”
Mandatory Reporting Set Off the Investigation
Once the principal suspected grooming behavior, school leadership was legally bound to act. Under Pennsylvania's Child Protective Services Law, all public school employees and administrators are mandatory reporters required to immediately notify the state's ChildLine hotline upon suspecting child abuse or exploitation, according to the Pennsylvania Family Support Alliance. The principal contacted ChildLine per the criminal complaint, which set off the law enforcement investigation that ultimately led to Massa's removal from student-facing duties and her arraignment.
The Big Beaver Falls Area School District said it is cooperating with the ongoing investigation and took what it described as appropriate action once it learned of the allegations. The district said it will not tolerate conduct that compromises student safety or well-being, but added that it cannot comment further because the matter remains an active investigation and a confidential personnel matter.
Felony Charges Carry Steep Penalties
Massa faces charges including corruption of minors with sexual contact, a sexual servitude charge, and criminal use of a communication facility. Under Pennsylvania law, corruption of minors involving a sexual offense is a third-degree felony carrying up to seven years in prison and a mandatory 15-year sexual offender registration requirement under SORNA, according to the Zuckerman Law Firm. Separately, criminal use of a communication facility is also a third-degree felony punishable by up to seven years in prison when a phone or computer is used to facilitate a felony offense, per the Adams County District Attorney's Office. The sexual servitude charge falls under Pennsylvania's anti-human trafficking statutes governing coerced sex acts involving minors, per the Pennsylvania General Assembly.
Massa was hired as a high school English teacher by the district at a Step 1 Bachelor salary of $49,500, effective August 2025, according to official school board minutes. A 2020 profile in The Knight Times indicated she had planned to study secondary English education at Slippery Rock University after graduating high school that spring, putting her into the classroom she now stands accused of exploiting less than a year into her tenure.
Potential Loss of Teaching Credentials
Beyond the criminal case, Massa could also face administrative consequences that strip her of her ability to teach in Pennsylvania altogether. Under the state's Educator Discipline Act, the Pennsylvania Professional Standards and Practices Commission has the authority to suspend or permanently revoke an educator's teaching credentials following findings of sexual misconduct or criminal convictions involving minors.
Beaver Falls High School is the sole public high school in the Big Beaver Falls Area School District, enrolling roughly 486 students across grades 9 through 12, according to state education data. The case adds to a run of child-safety-related law enforcement actions in Beaver Falls this month; Hoodline reported earlier in August that a local resident faced 100 felony counts after investigators found more than 2,500 child sexual abuse files on his phone.
