Tedria Fluellen (L) and stock image (Pexels)

A disgraced teaching assistant who has been accused of sexually abusing a teenage boy may have been trying to turn him straight.

Tedria Fluellen made sexual advances towards the 16-year-old boy and told him: “You don’t have to be gay,” KHOU 11 reports.

The boy was a student at Worthington High School in Houston, Texas, when the abuse started. Fluellen was a teaching assistant at the same school.

The teaching assistant reportedly assaulted the boy on at least four occasions.

According to court documents, Tedria Fluellen, who is 51, sexually abused the boy on at least four occasions and in a variety of places, including her storage unit, her home as well as the high school.

The boy said that he was assaulted by the woman on one occasion when his grandmother – who is his guardian – was out of town.

Keeping our students and campuses safe so that productive instruction can take place remains the district’s top priority.

He said that Fluellen gave his cousin a drink with champagne and medication and said: “It’s going to knock him out.”

Fluellen also reportedly gave the boy a cell phone to which she started sending sexually explicit messages. She also referred to the boy as her “secret lover”.

The boy’s grandmother found sexually explicit images on his phone and reported Tedria Fluellen to police.

The boy’s grandmother later started to suspect that something was wrong so she checked the boy’s cell phone. She discovered graphic messages and promptly reported the abuse to Houston Independent School District and to police.

Fluellen admitted to police that she had oral sex with the boy and told them that his life was “not the lifestyle” for him. She also said another student was trying to “turn him out”, which is slang for having sex with another man.

She also claimed that the sexually explicit messages were actually intended for her boyfriend and not for the victim. She is currently being held on a $40,000 bond and has been charged with the sexual assault of a minor.

The Houston Independent School District has said they are “cooporating fully with the Harris County District Attorney’s office”.

“Keeping our students and campuses safe so that productive instruction can take place remains the district’s top priority,” the statement said.