Gabrielle Marvelli, a Pennsylvania math teacher admitted to having sex with a 17-year-old student earlier this year on the same day as his senior prom.

Gabrielle Marvelli pleaded guilty to the corruption of a minor after she had sex with a male student.

The 39-year-old math teacher was shaking and crying quietly as she admitted she had sex with one of her former students during a hearing yesterday.

By admitting guilt, Gabrielle Marvelli faces a maximum sentence of 9 months, though she may be placed in either a county jail rather than a state prison, or even in a jail’s work-release program.

Gabrielle Marvelli was arrested in June, just under a month after going to the Econo Lodge, an Allentown, Pennsylvania motel, at 3:20 a.m. for the early morning tryst.

Gabrielle Marvelli, a Pennsylvania math teacher admitted to having sex with a 17-year-old student earlier this year on the same day as his senior prom

The unidentified male student was one week shy of his 18th birthday at the time of their romp. Gabrielle Marvelli claimed that the student said he was 18 at the time, though the boy’s mother says otherwise.

The police were contacted shortly after the encounter took place on Memorial Day weekend in late May and began an investigation into Gabrielle Marvelli’s actions.

Gabrielle Marvelli, a married and the mother of a young daughter, was suspended from her job at the Allen High School after news of the encounter broke.

Her role as a teacher in the young man’s school made her sentencing a moral issue for county officials.

“I have chosen to approve this charge because teachers must be held to a high standard and, stating the obvious, should not enlist their students to engage in sexual relations,” district attorney Jim Martin said at the time of her arrest.

Those sentiments were echoed by Tim Eller, spokesman for the state Department of Education said: “When it comes to teachers there’s no delineation between a student of adult age or child. Regardless of age, the department does not look favourably upon it.”

Under Pennsylvania criminal law, the charge of corruption of minors can be applied to adults who commit various offences, including sexual abuse, against anyone under age 18.

Gabrielle Marvelli was released on $10,000 bail, and said Tuesday that though she had been suspended from her teaching position, she now works two jobs. She did not say what those jobs were.

The next step in the process is Gabrielle Marvelli’s sentencing hearing which is scheduled to take place on December 20.