Texas Teacher Sentenced in Sex Case

(San Angelo, Texas) A 37-year-old teacher and athletic trainer, Sherry Turner, was caught being intimate with a student, kissing and sexual touching, in a parked car in October 2006. Subsequently, Turner was charged with improper relationship between an educator and a student, a second-degree felony. The gender of the student was not reported.

Turner resigned from the Christoval, TX, school system in the spring where she taught elementary school and was also an athletic trainer for the district's middle and high school. Christoval is a flyspeck of a town south of San Angelo with a population of less than 500.

This week, Turner agreed to plead guilty to one count of having an improper relationship with a 17-year-old student in accordance with an agreement. The agreement provides for seven years of deferred adjudication.

Under deferred adjudication, a defendant enters a plea of guilty and then the judge may postpone the actual finding of guilt and place the defendant on a probationary term. If there are no infractions during the probation period, the case will be dismissed without a finding of guilt.

Evidently, Turner has the opportunity to slide on the offense, assuming she stays out of trouble. That is, except for the sting of having to pay a $2,500 fine and surrender her Texas teaching certificate.