Kelsey Meta Boren who mentored drag queen, 11, sentenced for child sex crimes

A former Oregon elementary school teacher and mentor of an 11-year-old drag queen was sentenced to 11 months in jail after being convicted of nearly a dozen felony child abuse crimes.

Kelsey Meta Boren, 31, pleaded guilty to 11 counts of encouraging child sexual abuse in the first degree last month after she was busted for uploading child porn online, the Lane County Sheriff’s Office said.

Boren, who worked for the Fern Ridge School District before the allegations surfaced last year, was also pictured in an Instagram post prior to her arrest with an 11-year-old drag queen, who she claims to have mentored as a “drag mom.”

The term refers to when an older drag queen mentors a young performer, but the child’s family denies Boren played such a role.

Boren and the young drag queen, who goes by the stage name Vanellope MacPherson DuPont, were set to perform last October at the Old Nick’s Pub, in Eugene, a Victorian-themed gothic bar named after Satan.

A Facebook post from the bar to promote the October event said: “Vanellope is here to show you what an 11-year-old drag queen can do.”

Boren, however, was arrested in August, and a search of her home turned up evidence that she had been uploading and exchanging child porn on the internet, according to court documents.

The arrest, along with news of a child drag queen performing at the bar, spurred protests outside Old Nick’s, which ultimately led to the kid not performing.

Old Nick’s condemned the protests as “bigotry,” noting that protesters outside the bar were also armed with weapons.

In a statement, Vanellope’s family said the child only met Boren “maybe four or five times,” and that the two were never close.

“Meta-Boren was not a family friend, nor was she ever a mentor for V in the drag world,” the family said. “They, also, have not had any contact since before Covid, and all ties have been severed as of the time of Meta-Boren’s arrest in August.”

Following her arrest, Boren was suspended from the school district, barred from school grounds and from having contact with students.

No students from the district were identified as victims, police said.

After serving 11 months in jail for her crimes, Boren will serve five years probation and be prohibited from having contact with people under 18, according to court documents.

She will also have to register as a sex offender.

A representative for Boren could not immediately be reached.