CLEVELAND, Ohio -- A former sign language interpreter working in Parma schools was sentenced to two years probation for having sexual contact with a 14-year-old student in the Cleveland Metroparks.

Ashley Brooke Mason, 26, pleaded guilty last month to attempted felonious assault and unlawful sexual contact with a minor.

Mason cried in court as she apologized to the boy and his family, and said she has been working to have a positive impact on the lives of those around her.

"I'm just trying to make wiser decisions and think before I act," Mason said.

Common Pleas Judge Robert McClelland followed the court's probation department, which recommended that Mason avoid time behind bars. Mason will have to register as a sex offender once for 15 years, and McClelland barred her from working with children while she's on probation.

Mason worked for the Educational Service Center of Cuyahoga County and was assigned to work at Parma Senior High School.

Mason, then 25, developed a relationship with a 14-year-old student who she was not assigned to instruct, and the relationship eventually turned physical, Assistant Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Kristin Karkutt said.

Mason drove the boy to the Cleveland Metroparks Big Creek Reservation, where she twice allowed him to perform a sex act on her in January and February 2017, Karkutt said.

She was suspended and arrested in February 2017 and indicted on two counts of sexual battery the next month.

Karkutt said that the boy's mother wanted to make sure that Mason had to register as a sex offender and that she is never able to work around children again.

The court cannot legally do that, Karkutt pointed out. But Mason having a felony sex conviction with a child victim on her record will "act as a warning signal" if she applies for a job around children in the future, Karkutt said.

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