Former Clinton High School teacher Megan Baumann talks with her attorney, Mike Farley, on Monday in Anderson County Criminal Court.
CLINTON - She had sex with one of her male students, fondled a second student and twice sent nude photos of herself to students by cell phone.
Megan Baumann, 28, former social studies teacher at Clinton High School, admitted to those accusations in a plea deal Monday in Anderson County Criminal Court.
Her confessions netted Baumann three years in prison and three years on probation.
She also must register for life as a sex offender, surrender her teacher's license and undergo therapy.
Baumann, who fought back tears as she responded to Judge Don Elledge's questions, reports to prison Jan. 10. She has to serve 30 percent of her sentence before she's eligible for parole.
"It's not an agreement that she's happy with," said Baumann's attorney, Mike Farley. "She feels the punishment is very harsh."
"I believe this is a just sentence," Anderson County District Attorney General Dave Clark said. It sends a message, he said: "Adults having sexual contact with children will be aggressively prosecuted.''
Farley said Baumann's feelings about her sentence are based on "a number of similar-type cases."
"People have been charged with the same type of crimes and received probation, received diversion, received no jail time and weren't forced to be placed on the sexual offender's registry for life,'' he said.
Baumann's pleas involving three male students younger than 18 but older than 13:
n One count of statutory rape by an authority figure for a Jan. 29 episode.
n One count of sexual battery by an authority figure, involving touching a student's clothing covering "intimate parts" in December 2009.
n Two counts of displaying sexually explicit material to minors in December and January. One count involved the same student in the statutory rape case.
Clark declined to say where the sexual episodes occurred.
Baumann received three years in prison for the statutory rape conviction and two 11-month, 29-day jail sentences for sending the nude photos. Those sentences will be served at the same time.
A three-year probation term for sexual battery will follow Baumann's prison sentence.
Word of Baumann's sexual encounter with the student spread quickly through the 1,100-student school last winter. Less than a week later the educator, a Powell resident at the time, was suspended without pay.
Investigations by the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation and Clinton police followed.
In mid-February, Anderson County Schools Director Larry Foster sent Baumann notice he wanted to fire her, calling her behavior "flagrant, egregious and reprehensible.''
Baumann originally planned to appeal Foster's dismissal bid, and a hearing was set. It was canceled after school officials learned the plea deal was in the works.
Baumann was a nontenured teacher who interned at Clinton High in 2007-08 while she was a University of Tennessee student. She started teaching at Clinton High in August 2008.
Farley said Baumann "went through a very difficult emotional time last year" in her personal life. Heretofore, he said, "She has lived an exemplary life."
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