A 27-year-old teacher pleaded no contest to two aggravated child abuse charges in December and avoided sex offender registration after being accused of engaging in a sexual relationship with one of her students. The woman would have had to face a total of 90 years in prison - 30 years for each aggravated child abuse charge, and 30 years total for two counts of aggravated battery she was also charged with - but will serve just three years instead. After the woman's prison sentence is complete, she will have five years of probation.

Avoiding sex offender registration was very important to the 27-year-old teacher. The teacher was offered another deal by prosecutors which would have spared her jail time but also would have labeled her a sex offender.

When you register as a sex offender in Florida, it is almost always for life. There are exceptions, but the woman in this case did not want to risk it. She decided to protect herself from registering, allowing her the ability to seek gainful employment in the future without the registration compromising her professional life.

Her attorney echoed this sentiment. "This way, she doesn't have to register as a sex offender, which would follow you the rest of your life," he said, noting that the three-year sentence was preferable for the 27-year-old in the long run.

The relationship was brought to light when the student's girlfriend read curious texts from the teacher on the boy's cell phone. The girlfriend subsequently told police, who then monitored a phone call between the teacher and the student which confirmed the relationship's sexual nature.

Source: Orlando Sentinel, "Teacher who had sex with student to go to prison for 3 years," Rafael A. Olmeda, Dec. 19, 2011