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LOS ANGELES (KTLA) -- A former Corona, Calif., high school teacher who admitted to 16 felony counts related to sex acts with five underage male students was sentenced Friday to three years in state prison.



The 32-year-old must also register as a sex offender for life.



Summer Michelle Hansen appeared in court in Riverside Friday in connection to crimes that occurred in 2012 and 2013. She admitted to those counts in at a Feb. 27 court hearing, a spokesman for the Riverside County District Attorney’s Office said.



Sobbing, Hansen made an emotional plea to the families of her victims, saying she was “heartbroken” and that she prayed for them every night.



“I’m not a monster. I made bad choices in life and for that I’m truly, truly sorry,” Hansen said.



Parents called her a “predator” and a “whore” who violated the trust of the students. They were not happy with the three-year sentence.



One parent called the sentence “a slap on the wrist” for Hansen but a “slap in the face” for the victims.



Hansen was a special education teacher at Centennial High School in Corona when the crimes occurred. The victims were not her students but attended the school and were under 18, the DA’s office said in March 2014, when Hansen waived her right to a preliminary hearing.



The Corona-Norco Unified School District alerted police to an inappropriate relationship between Hansen and a former student in June 2013, prompting her arrest, authorities said at the time.



The complaint against her stated she had sex with students in her classroom, in a utility room at the school, in a car and at a student’s home. She was also accused of sending naked pictures of herself to teen students.



Hansen was charged with 16 felony counts, including unlawful sexual intercourse with a minor, unlawful oral copulation with a minor and sending harmful matter to a minor.



The charges carried a possible sentence of up to 13 years in state prison.



The DA’s office opposed the shorter sentence, a DA spokesman told KTLA.



