Plea Deal for Teacher's Aide

A former teacher's aide accused of having sex with a student strikes a deal with prosecutors. Kourtney Mullen from Virden faces two years probation after pleading guilty to sending a 17-year old boy sexually explicit pictures of herself. A county prosecutor says the teacher's aide did have sex with the student, but charges on that were dropped because Mullen agreed to plead guilty to a lesser charge. Assistant State's Attorney Sheryl Essenburg says Mullen's being punished for sending sexually explicit pictures of herself to the student with a cell phone. Essenburg says this was a complicated situation because Mullen was a kindergarten teacher's aide and the student was not in her class. So that raised the question on whether she really had authority over him. Essenburg says she doesn't think Mullen got a light punishment because she's a woman. "I think if we had a male young adult who was a teaching assistant or a teacher's aide.. and he was involved with a high school female.. we would have the same facts. We would have the same law. And I think we would very much have the same outcome." Prosecutors say this relationship between Mullen and the teen student unfolded back in October.