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Christine Taylor, a language arts teacher at Jefferson Middle School in Chicago, faces one count of aggravated criminal sexual abuse.

(DuPage County Sheriff's Office)

WHEATON, Ill. -- A suburban Chicago teacher has been charged with sexually abusing a 16-year-old boy at her house on New Year's Day.

Christine Taylor, 44, appeared in court Sunday on a felony charge of criminal sexual abuse. A judge set her bond at $300,000. She remained in custody Sunday afternoon.

The teenager and his mother were at Taylor's Naperville home having pizza when Taylor asked the boy's mom if he could walk her dog with her, ABC 7 in Chicago reported. Instead of walking the dog, Taylor allegedly took the teen into her bedroom and sexually abused him around 9 p.m., prosecutors said.

After the boy's mother caught Taylor and the boy together, another resident of Taylor's home called police, police said.

Authorities said Taylor -- although a teacher at Jefferson Middle School and not at the school attended by the teen -- violated the position of trust she holds in the community. Taylor taught language arts in the district for several years.



"While the victim in this case was not a student at Jefferson Middle School, Ms. Taylor, as a teacher, still holds a position of trust in the community," said DuPage County State's Attorney Robert B. Berlin in a statement, WGN-TV reported. "It is alleged that she abused that trust to take advantage of a young boy just to satisfy her own deviant sexual desires."

It was not immediately clear if Taylor has an attorney.