A 25-year-old former math teacher who had sexual contact with two students at a Tacoma high school has been sentenced to six months in jail.

The News Tribune reports that former Lincoln High School teacher Meredith Powell cried and apologized Friday in court.

Pierce County Superior Court Judge Frank Cuthbertson says he believes Powell is remorseful, which is why he suspended all but six months of a five-year sentence and ordered her into a sex offender program open to first-time offenders.

Prison time: Meredith Powell, 25, was arrested in February after students came forward accusing her of sending inappropriate texts and engaging in sexual activity

She pleaded guilty to two counts of third-degree child rape and one count of communicating with a minor for immoral purposes, all felonies.

Powell cried after her sentencing and told the court she prays every day for the two teenage boys and is heartbroken at the suffering she has caused the boys and their families, reports the News Tribune.

'I feel like words can’t even express how sorry I am,' Powell said. 'I wish I could take back what happened to the students that I failed. Sorry doesn’t take away anything that happened, but I hope they can move forward with as little impact as possible.'

She told the court that a series of problems, including molestation in her own youth, contributed to her behavior.

The judge, Frank Cuthbertson, said sentencing was difficult because Powell's behavior was 'out of character.'

'This is difficult, this is different, this is not what we usually see,' the judge told Powell. 'Everything suggests this is out of character for you. But again, you need to understand the severe impact that this has had not just on the victims but on their families.'

The families of the victims were upset by the short jail sentence.

One stormed out and several others cursed.

The attorney for Tacoma Public Schools, Shannon McMinimee, said the district was also disappointed by Powell’s sentence.

'Ms. Powell repeatedly talked about letting her students down,' she said after the hearing. 'The reality is she committed child rape.'

Misconduct: She will serve six months of a five-year suspended sentence for engaging in sex acts with two teenage boys

Inappropriate: Powell told police the relationships began when she was intoxicated and sent a text to the students

Powell was arrested in February after being accused of having sexual contact with several students. She later admitted she'd engaged in sex acts with two boys between the ages of 14 and 16. Both were students at Lincoln High School.

She told police she had performed sex acts with multiple students, one as young as 15 years old, inside her locked classroom, as well as sending them sexualized pictures of herself.

She resigned and surrendered her teaching certificate shortly after her arrest.

The Lincoln High School teacher from Tacoma, Washington, admitted two counts of rape of a child in the third degree and one count of communication with a minor for immoral purposes in July.

Tacoma Schools representatives said they were grateful she finally admitted to her wrongdoing that ultimately affected students and her colleagues.

Tacoma Schools General Counsel Shannon McMinimee said: 'Ms Powell was well-liked by staff and students and they were devastated that she had violated the trust that they had placed with her.'

Powell's attorney Wayne Fricke told King5.com his client has shown remorse over what happened.

'She was going through a difficult time in her personal life and obviously made a lot of bad choices, regrettable choices,' said Fricke.

A fourth count of sexual misconduct of a minor was dismissed. She was held without bail until her sentencing on Friday.

Tacoma police initially began investigating Powell after learning that she wrote a letter to one of the boy’s girlfriends apologizing for 'promiscuous' and 'unprofessional' drunken text messages she exchanged with one of the boys.

Powell was arrested and placed on unpaid leave.

Police said Powell began a relationship with the two students - who are between the ages of 15 and sixteen - in January.

Powell told police the relationships began when she was intoxicated and sent a text to the students, saying they were 'hot', following back-and-forth communication.

Scene: Meredith Powell was accused of engaging in sex acts with students in her classroom here at Lincoln High School in Washington

Powell said she apologized to the students the next morning, and also sent a letter to one of the defendant’s girlfriends in an attempt to explain what happened.

After interviewing the victims, who said they had sexual contact with Powell behind a lock door in her classroom, police again interviewed Powell.

She then admitted to engaging in a sex act with one of the students and other sex acts with another at different times in late January.

Powell also sent at least one of the victims a Snapchat photo of her in the bathtub.

She told police she knew her actions were wrong, and that she would apologize to the student’s parents if she could.