A former Illinois junior high school teacher pleaded guilty to having sexual contact with two former students and was sentenced to 24 months of probation.
Cara Labus, 36, pleaded guilty to the charges of aggravated battery at a hearing on Thursday. After sentencing the former teacher, Judge Kerry Kennedy warned her that she would not want to be back in front of him for violating probation and called her a “predator,” according to The Chicago Sun-Times.
The former teacher was first charged in 2015 while working at a school in Joliet, where she lives. The charge was reduced to aggravated battery as part of her plea agreement. The victims agreed to the plea agreement in an effort to move forward and because they did not believe she would serve prison time, but instead be sentenced to time served.
As part of the plea, she will have to complete a sex offender probation program but will not have to register as a sex offender.
Labus first met her victims, two sisters, when she served as their basketball coach at Jerling Junior High School. She abused the girls from 2008 — when they were just 14-years-old — until 2014, when the girls reported the abuse.
“A teacher and coach is supposed to protect kids, not abuse them,” one of the sisters said in her victim impact statement.
