'Naive' teacher who kissed and cuddled with one of her 15-year-old students in her car is given probation

A high school English teacher in Las Vegas has been sentenced to five years' probation after having an inappropriate relationship with a teenage student. Amanda Brennan, who must register as a sex offender, has a chance to reduce her felony conviction to a misdemeanor if she stays out of trouble. The 25-year-old also faces one to four years in prison if she violates the sentence, which was handed down after she pleaded guilty in October to luring a child with intent to engage in sexual conduct. 'I'm sorry for the incident,' Brennan said in court Tuesday, as she stood with her defense lawyer, William Terry, before Senior Clark County District Court Judge James Brennan. The judge and the defendant are not related. Terry called his client 'naive' and said she knew she could never teach again. He added that she had found another job but wouldn't specify outside court what it was. Brennan and her mother also declined to comment about the sentence. Police had said the former Foothill High School teacher told investigators she knew it was wrong to date the boy, who was 15 years old at the time, but she did it anyway. The boy's parents reported that Brennan picked up the teenager against their wishes and returned him home past curfew. His mother learned Brennan’s name and age from the security guard at their gated Henderson community, where Brennan had come to pick up the boy. The teenager told police that he and Brennan loved each other and had kissed twice, but only cuddled in the back of her car the night he went out without his parents' permission. Officials found about 1,000 text messages between Brennan and the boy over a nine-day period before her arrest in May, last year. Brennan's sentencing came a week after a 22-year-old former Las Vegas substitute teacher was arrested on kidnapping, child sex and lewdness charges in a separate case involving what authorities allege was a sexual relationship with a 15-year-old student. Tanikka Queen remained jailed Tuesday on $100,000 bail pending a March 31 preliminary hearing on felony kidnapping, child sexual assault and lewdness charges. Police reported recovering thousands of cellphone text messages between Queen and the student, records of more than 100 voice calls and dozens of photographs.