A former Indianapolis Public Schools counselor accused of having sex with two underage students accepted a plea deal Tuesday, allowing her to serve no jail time. Instead, she will have six years of home detention.
Shana Taylor, 38, pleaded guilty to three felony counts of dissemination of materials harmful to minors. She is requesting to serve her home detention in Ellettsville, Indiana. The plea agreement did not specify whether she will have to register as a sex offender, a spokeswoman from the Marion County Prosecutor’s Office said.
All three counts pertained to photos Taylor sent to a student that showed her bare genitals.
Previously, Taylor was facing nine counts of child seduction, one count of dissemination of materials harmful to minors and one count of contributing to the delinquency of a minor.
Between October 2015 and February 2016, Taylor allegedly had sex with two underage students and had an extended sexual relationship with one of them, according to court documents. The student said he met with Taylor for sex on more than 20 different occasions, some of which were during school hours.
During these encounters, Taylor would cover the window of her office door and give the student oral sex in the corner, out of sight, according to court documents. Authorities found traces of bodily fluids in the corner of her office during the course of their investigation.
The relationship between Taylor and the student began when he was 16 and continued after he turned 17. The two met for sex at various locations, including the boy’s home, Taylor’s home, her blue Hyundai Elantra and a Bloomington hotel. On one occasion the boy invited another student over while he was with Taylor, who performed oral sex on one boy while the other penetrated her from behind, according to court documents.
Taylor and the student exchanged numerous explicit texts, in which she often referred to the student as being “young” and herself as being “grown,” according to court documents.
One boy’s mother found text and Facebook messages between him and Taylor and brought them to the school district Feb. 17, 2016. Although school employees in Indiana are required to report abuse or neglect to the Department of Child Services immediately, no report was made about Taylor until Feb. 23 after a media outlet had been tipped off about Indianapolis Public Schools’ investigation into Taylor’s actions with the students, according to a probable cause affidavit.
Two IPS employees, Shalon Dabney and Lela Hester, both of whom worked in human resources, were charged with misdemeanors for failing to report the allegations against Taylor to DCS. The charge against Hester was dismissed, and Dabney has gotten the charge removed from her record.
IPS superintendent Lewis Ferebee openly criticized the district.
“At the corpus of these careless errors is a very disappointing tangle of miscommunication,” Ferebee said in a statement last March.
Since Taylor’s arrest last March, three IPS officials have resigned, and two have been fired.
[IPS principal resigns after criticism for not reporting child abuse | IDS]
A former student and Cox Scholar at IU, Taylor worked as a counselor in an IPS alternative education program for students with learning and behavioral difficulties.
Taylor was one of three Indianapolis educators to be accused of sexual abuse last year. The others were Kyle Cox, a former basketball coach at Park Tudor School, and Sameer Girish Thakar, a former teacher at North Central High School.
After her hearing ended, Taylor lingered in the courtroom.
She sat alone in the back row, reading the paperwork and glancing outside, where a group of reporters waited.
Even after her attorney left, Taylor hid in the doorway. She didn’t come out until her attorney beckoned her.
The reporters shouted over each other while they rushed after Taylor, who stared at the ground as she walked toward the elevator.
“Why did you do it?”
“Are you really guilty?”
“Are you sorry for what you’ve done?”
The reporters were still yelling as the elevator door shut.
Taylor never said a word.
