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A biology teacher who admitted to having sex with five of her students has been spared jail.

Marquita Alston, 24, performed sex acts on five 17-year-old boys between September and November 2014.

Shockingly, some of the incidents occurred on school grounds, officials say.

Alston, of Tennessee, US, appeared in court in yesterday, where she pleaded guilty to five counts of statutory rape.

She was handed five years' probation and ordered to sign the sex offender registry.

(Image: Chris Murphy)

She will also have to undergo treatment, the details of which are unclear.

Alston, who worked at Pearl Cohn Entertainment Magnet High School in Nashville, was arrested after a tip-off to the principal, Sonia Stewart.

The Metropolitan Nashville Police Department said its Sex Crimes Unit started investigating the teacher in November 2014.

Detectives were told she had engaged in sexual contact with several teenagers during the three-month period that year.

(Image: Chris Murphy)

Officials believe some of this contact took place on campus.

Alston was charged with five counts of statutory rape following a 20-month probe.

She was put on administrative leave on November 25, 2014, WKRN reports.

She resigned from her job a week later.

One of Alston’s pupils said after her arrest: "I don't believe it because she's not the type of person who would do something like that.

(Image: Google)

"She was friendly, but I never witnessed something that would have made me think of that.”

The student said Alston was laid back and enjoyed having fun in class when she first arrived at the school.

But the teacher apparently changed shortly before her arrest.

“She kind of got a little meaner with us, made us do what we were supposed to do,” said the pupil.