A former special education teacher in Alabama accused of sex acts with two students has pleaded guilty, according to reports.
Lyndsey Sherrod Bates, who also coached volleyball at Madison County High School in Gurley, was sentenced Tuesday to time served plus three years of probation. A 10-year prison sentence was also suspended as part of a plea deal with prosecutors, AL.com reports.
Bates, 23, was accused of having sex with one student and engaging in a sex act with another. Both teens were at least 16 years old and neither was in Bates’ class at the school, Madison County Assistant District Attorney Tim Douthit said.
Bates, who did not immediately return a message seeking comment early Wednesday, resigned one month before she was arrested in April.
Two days after she was taken into custody, Bates’ husband, Andrew, filed for divorce, citing “incompatibility” in an uncontested breakup that was later finalized some 14 months after they got married, AL.com previously reported.
Andrew Bates’ father, Stacy Bates, is a chief deputy for the Madison County Sheriff’s Office, which released a statement at the time of her arrest assuring that the relationship did not impact the investigation.
Lyndsey Bates will also have to register as a sex offender for the rest of her life, AL.com reports.
“She’s going to be a sex offender and felon,” Douthit said. “But we’re not sending people to jail for consensual sex without any evidence of coercion.”
State law bans all school employees from having sex with students, regardless of consent or whether the student is a member of the teacher’s class, according to the website.
Bates pleaded guilty to three charges in all, including three counts of distributing obscene material to a student. She had been scheduled to appear in court early Wednesday, WHNT reports.