The 37-year-old took students out of school at lunch time to have sex in her car

She is married to a police employee and will be listed as a child sex offender

The teacher cannot be named as she is fighting to keep her name suppressed

She threatened to self harm if either student tried to stopped their relationship

A married female school teacher has been jailed for two and a half years for having a sexual relationship with two teenage students in New Zealand.

The 37-year-old mother was employed at a college in Blenheim on the North Island and repeatedly took two students out of school grounds at lunch time to have sex in her car in 2018.

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She will be listed on the child sex offenders register. The woman can't be named as she is still fighting to keep her name suppressed.

The woman is married to a police employee and had been employed at the school for 12 years before her teaching registration was cancelled.

The Blenheim District Court heard the woman had threatened to harm herself if either of the students stopped their relationship.

A married female school teacher (right) was been jailed for two and a half years for having a sexual relationship with two teenage students

Judge Tony Zohrab told the court that the teacher had groomed the two boys, including sending them sexually explicit content on social media.

'Given your professional training and experience as a teacher, no-one should have been more attuned to the needs of young boys as they turn into men, as they try to develop a sense of self,' Judge Zohrab said, as reported by Stuff.

Her lawyers argued that home detention would be the best form of rehabilitation for her due to ongoing mental health issues.

Prosecutors said if she was a man and the victims were schoolgirls then community service would never have been considered as punishment.

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'This was sexually exploitative conduct by an adult who did state in a statement to the court, 'You were the students, and I was the adult teacher'. She emotionally manipulated both boys ... there was a degree of coercion,' Crown prosecutor Mark O'Donoghue said.

The teacher's lawyers pushed to keep her name suppressed and said that her children had been bullied after people learned of the allegations against their mother.

An apology letter was read out by the teacher's lawyer.

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'I am deeply sorry I have hurt you and brought shame to your families,' she wrote, as reported by The NZ Herald. 'It was only me that was in the wrong and you have nothing to be ashamed of.'