'My Son Was Stripped of His Childhood': Ill. Teacher Gets 10 Years for Sexually Abusing 2 Teen Boys

An Illinois teacher was sentenced last Friday to 10 years in prison for sexually abusing two boys ages 14 and 15, PEOPLE confirms.

Lindsay P. Anderson, 31, abused the boys between July 2013 and May 2015, prosecutors said. She was a teacher at Carpentersville Middle School and a coach at Dundee-Crown High School at the time of the incidents. While she was not the students’ teacher at the time, prosecutors said her job gave her access to the teens.

According to a warrant obtained by the Daily Herald, Anderson admitted to authorities that she had repeatedly given gifts to the boys and assaulted them. She also admitted to providing one of the teens with marijuana. She admitted that one of the sexual encounters happened in a movie theater parking lot.

Anderson pleaded guilty in September.

During a two-hour sentencing hearing on Friday, Carpentersville police officer Timothy Bosshart detailed some of the allegations against Anderson.

“On one occasion, Miss Anderson had picked him up at the Dairy Queen near his house and drove him to Raceway Woods in Carpentersville and had sex with him in the back seat of her vehicle,” he testified, adding that she sent him explicit photos, according to the Kane County Chronicle.

One of the boys’ mothers told the judge that the sexual assault had irrevocably changed her son’s life. “My son was stripped of his childhood,” she testified. “He dropped out of high school because of being ridiculed by others. He did not go to his junior-senior prom. He never graduated. He, even today, has commitment issues. Trusting authority figures is an issue for him.”

After the hearing, Judge D.J. Tegeler sentenced Anderson to six years in prison for a conviction for aggravated sexual abuse as well as four years for a conviction for aggravated criminal sexual abuse. Both of the charges were felonies.

Judge Tegeler ruled that the sentences should be served consecutively because there were two separate victims.

After her release, Anderson will have two years of mandatory monitoring, PEOPLE confirms. She must register as a sex offender for the rest of her life.

“Children have to be able to go to school and be safe,” Tegeler said, according to the Northwest Herald. “Parents, whether they put their children on a bus or drop them off, have to know they are safe.”