Former DC high school track coach sentenced 17 years for sexual abuse

WASHINGTON (AP) -- A former assistant track coach at a northwest Washington high school has been sentenced to 17 ½ years in prison after he pleaded guilty to sexually abusing seven male students.

A judge sentenced 35-year-old Charles Young on Friday. He pleaded guilty in February to seven felony counts of sexual abuse.

Young worked at Dunbar Senior High School as a business manager from 2012 to 2014. He admitted that he abused seven boys between the ages of 14 and 17 on the Dunbar campus.

As part of the plea, Young acknowledged that he sometimes used concerns about students' hygiene as a ploy to get students to take off their clothes. He would then attempt to touch the boys' genitals.

Young's attorney did not immediately return a message on Friday.