Another female teacher, 39, jailed for 10 years for sex with student

Amanda Watkins, 39-year-old former eighth-grade English teacher at Sheffield Junior High School, Muscle Shoals, Alabama, has been sentenced to 10 years in prison for having sex with one of her former male students, who was 15-year-old at the time sexual abuse.
Watkins was arrested in December 2009 for allegedly engaging in inappropriate sexual behavior with a 15-year-old male student and at first she was facing a charge of second-degree rape. Later more charges were added.
Watkins was arrested after Muscle Shoals police discovered her and the teen in a middle of a sex act in her car while police were responding to a report of a suspicious vehicle parked at Covenant Christian School. She admitted to police that the pair were engaging in sexual activity, according to the Times Register, and was fired the next month.

In November 2011, Watkins was convicted of second-degree rape and second-degree sodomy, but her lawyer says she might appeal that verdict.
During sentencing, Watkins took the stand to apologise to the youth and ask for forgiveness. When Colbert County Circuit Court Judge Jackie Hatcher announced the sentence, Watkins showed no emotion.

Watkins argued she suffered from dissociative disorder and other mental diseases and wasn't in her right mind when she had sex with the 15-year-old. Family members and two psychiatrists also testified on behalf of the former teacher, claiming that she was mentally ill and a custodial sentence would endanger her recovery.