RAVENNA — Laura E. Amero of Austintown, former Windham Schools superintendent, received a 10-year prison sentence Monday after pleading guilty earlier to having sex with one juvenile male student while she was Windham High School principal, and attempting to have sex with another.

Amero, 35, of Austintown, pleaded guilty in Portage County Common Pleas Court to two counts of sexual battery and one count of misdemeanor sexual imposition.

Judge Laurie Pittman ordered Amero to report to prison on April 1, but Amero is due to give birth in March, so the judge will allow her to report later to avoid the baby being born in prison.

Amero’s victims were both 16 years old.

Amero became superintendent in February 2019 but resigned from her $96,500 per year job in May after she was arrested April 22, 2019.

When she leaves prison, she must register as a sex offender for life. She previously taught in Mahoning County before her employment in Windham.

Her attorney, Joseph F. Gorman of Akron, argued in a sentencing memorandum filed with the court that Amero should get probation instead of prison time.

He noted the offenses were not reported by the victims but emerged from rumors. The police then questioned her and she confessed.

She has no prior juvenile or adult record, he said, and has led an otherwise “law-abiding life” and shows genuine remorse, he said.

She lost her teaching certificate and her superintendent license “so it is not likely this offense will reoccur,” he said.

She resigned “as quickly as possible to ensure that the school board could replace her and keep continuity within the Windham schools,” Gorman stated.

Because of her sex-offender registration requirements, she will “never again be allowed” to teach, coach or be a school administrator, he said. “She has destroyed her career.”

She has been in counseling with a psychologist since April and she has participated in 23 counseling sessions with him, Gorman stated. She also sought counseling through a pastor at a church in Canfield.

She found a low-paying, full-time job in an auto-group office since her indictment, Gorman said.

“There is no doubt this defendant violated her duty of trust in this case,” Gorman stated. “There is also no question that there are mitigating factors bearing on this case and that (Amero) has suffered a great deal.”

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