A North East teacher who kissed one of her students and exchanged hundreds of sexually charged messages with the teenager has been placed on the sex offender register.
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The married teacher and mother-of-two was supported by her husband in the Wangaratta Magistrates Court on Wednesday as she was sentenced for the offending, labelled an "appalling breach of trust" by a magistrate.
The 41-year-old - who can't be named to protect the victim - had been speaking with the teen in a welfare capacity at the rural school in term three, 2017.
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She had initially been supporting the then 16-year-old for his ongoing family issues during school hours, but their communications moved onto Instagram outside of hours.
In one message the woman, who was 39 at the time, wrote "if you were here this minute we'd be in bed in the next 90 seconds".
After they kissed at the woman's home, she said she was "so wanting more right now".
There was talk of them showering together and the teen sent her images.
The exchanges were found by the victim's ex-partner in September 2017, who took screenshots and informed her mother.
The school's principal and the police were notified.
The woman's teaching registration was suspended a short time after the school and Victorian Institute of Teaching were notified and police searched her home on March 29 last year.
The boy was reluctant to provide a statement to police, but appeared in court on Wednesday with his mother to see the woman sentenced.
She appeared to shake uncontrollably as magistrate Fran Medina detailed her offending.
The boy said in a victim impact statement his mental health was "at an all-time low".
Ms Medina said it was grave offending, "an abuse of the accused's position as a teacher", and conduct which needed to be denounced.
The magistrate was particularly concerned by the teacher's limited insight into her crimes and the impact it had had on the teenager.
Ms Medina placed the 41-year-old on an 18-month community corrections order with 200 hours of community work.
She will be a registered sex offender until 2027.
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