'I am deeply ashamed': Former teacher jailed for four years for having sex with five male students in alcohol-fueled orgy seeks release after just SEVEN MONTHS



Leniency: Stacy Schuler, 34, has been released from prison after serving just 13 months of her four-year sentence

A teacher jailed for four years for having orgies with five male students she plied with alcohol and drugs has spoken about her crime for the first time as she seeks early release.

Stacy Schuler, a former physical education teacher at Mason High School in Cincinnati, Ohio, has written a letter pleading with a judge to let her go after just seven months behind bars.

'I would like to begin by saying how ashamed I am of my actions and behaviors that led to my incarceration,' she wrote in a five-page letter to Judge Robert Peeler.

Schuler, 34, resigned in February 2011 after an anonymous tip about her sordid after-school activities led to the charges against her - and the end of her 10-year teaching career.

She was found guilty of holding drink and drug-fueled orgies, threesomes and having sex with students on her kitchen counter and in her shower in late 2010.



The court convicted her of 16 felony counts of sexual battery and three misdemeanor counts of providing alcohol to minors in October.

In her letter to Peeler, the judge who convicted her, Schuler explained she had been on a 'downward spiral' of depression and sleep deprivation, and turned to wine instead of family or a doctor for help.

'My decision to drink wine impaired my ability to make decisions and I opened the door to compromise my beliefs,' she wrote in the letter seen by the Cincinnati Enquirer .

In court: Last October, Schuler was found guilty of having sex with five male students that she plied with drugs and alcohol and invited to orgies at her home

She went on: 'The situations I allowed myself to become involved with are inexcusable and could have been prevented if I had only been willing to ask for help.'



Referring to the five teenage boys and their families, she added: 'I acknowledge that through my wrong mindedness I have brought hurt and pain to numerous individuals who trusted me and had faith in me.'

She continued that she had used her time behind bars to her benefit herself and other prisoners, running yoga and general education classes.

She said she is also undergoing mental health treatment for bipolar disorder and participates in a group for sex offenders.

Her attorney Charles H. Rittgers filed the letter and 62 others in support for her early release. 'The letters go on and on. Even while incarcerated, Stacy continues to help others,' Rittgers said.

Regrets: Schuler, pictured breaking down during her court appearance, wrote to the judge to say her judgment was impaired by stress, sleep deprivation and a reliance on wine

He added that she did not want to excuse her crimes but that 'further imposition of [her] prison term is not required to adequately punish [her] or protect the public'.

But Warren County Prosecutor David Fornshell told the Enquirer: 'She has only been in prison since the end of October. n my opinion, that is not sufficient time given the seriousness of the offenses.'

The gym teacher had plead not guilty by reason of insanity to holding the drink and drug-fueled orgies with the students, claiming they took advantage of her.

But the high school students, who were all around 17 at the time, testified that Schuler had been drinking at the time of the encounters and was a willing participant who initiated much of the contact.

The age of sexual consent in Ohio is 16 but it is illegal for a teacher to have sex with students.

Caught: Schuler, a teacher for 10 years, was arrested after an anonymous tip to Mason High School



At the time, Rittgers said the teacher was not in a state of mind at the time of the encounters to understand the wrongfulness of what she was doing.

Testimony from a psychologist suggested that Schuler's medical and physical ailments, combined with her use of alcohol and an antidepressant, impaired her ability to tell right from wrong.

However a psychologist for the prosecution said the use of alcohol did not meet the state standard for an insanity defense and that willingly getting drunk is not a legal defence for a crime.



One student said after the trial that she felt Schuler's sentence had been 'harsh', but two of the victims' parents made appeals to the judge.

One father spoke of his teenage son's depression following the sexual encounters and asked the judge to hand down a sentence to send a message that Schuler's acts were not acceptable.

Prison: Schuler has served just seven months of her jail term in Warren County, Ohio

Schuler visibly wept in court as another mother said her son turned to Schuler during an extremely low period when his father had cancer.

She said: 'These young men may appear as if they are tough guys, but in reality, they are truly hurting. As his mother I am devastated. She let him down.'

Schuler, who had been facing decades in prison, cried as she was handcuffed and led out of the courtroom in Lebanon, Ohio, when she was initially sentenced in October last year.