@LBACKUSNBH

NEW BRITAIN - A former student teacher and assistant track coach arrested by New Britain police on charges she had a sexual relationship with a West Hartford high school student was given accelerated rehabilitation Thursday.

Taylor Boncal, 23, of Beacon Falls, was helping out as an assistant track coach in the West Hartford school system after student teaching last fall, West Hartford school officials said. She is accused of having a sexual relationship with an 18-year-old male student at Conard High School, police said.

Boncal had been a student teacher in the West Hartford schools as part of her studies at Central Connecticut State University, West Hartford officials said.

The alleged sexual encounters with the Conard student took place in New Britain while Boncal was living there, police said.

Boncal was charged with three counts of second-degree sexual assault with a student in February after an criminal investigation was opened on Jan. 12. She was granted accelerated rehabilitation Tuesday morning at New Britain Superior Court.

She will have to stay in the program until July 2020, Judge Joan Alexander said, and she cannot take a job in which she has any supervisory role over students.

“There can be no teaching or coaching,” Alexander said.

Boncal is also to have no contact with the student, the judge said.

If she successfully completes the requirements of the program, the case will be dismissed in July 2020.

Lisa Backus can be reached at 860-801-5066 or Lbackus@centralctcommunications.com.