A former Texas high school teacher who had an illicit, sexual relationship with a 16-year-old student was sentenced Thursday to 120 days behind bars.
According to The Dallas Morning News, ex-Plano Senior High School algebra teacher Alaina Ferguson, 25, pleaded guilty to improper relationship between a teacher and a student and indecency with a child by exposure charges for a two-month relationship she had with the teen boy in 2016.
Court documents obtained by the newspaper stated that the relationship began in the fall of 2016, after the teen left his Snapchat name on a test. The pair ultimately met up and had sex on a park bench in Lewisville, at Ferguson’s then-fiancé’s apartment in McKinney, and in the back of his truck. WFAA reported that they also had sex at Ferguson apartment on several occasions.
“Ms. Ferguson told [the student] that she knew it was not the right thing to do, but it felt right at the time, and that she was going to break it off with her fiancé because she didn’t feel anything with him,” court documents said.
McKinney police’s investigation also uncovered that Ferguson and the teen sent each other nude photos and that Ferguson provided the teen with alcohol.
Ferguson reportedly quit her teaching job two months after she was hired in August 2016.
The Dallas Morning News reports that the former teacher will serve her four-month jail sentence by spending two weeks a year behind bars over the course of several years. She was also ordered to serve 150 hours of community service and is required to register as a sex offender for 10 years.
[Featured image: Alaina Ferguson/Collin County Detention Center]