Former teacher at Ky. elementary school gets 6-year prison sentence for sexual abuse
A former Harrison County teacher has been sentenced to six years in prison for sexual abusing a student.
Amanda Carol Phillips, 40, was sentenced Tuesday in Harrison Circuit Court. In August, she pleaded guilty to four counts of first-degree sexual abuse, the final judgment in the case states.
In addition to her prison sentence, she was ordered to surrender her teaching certificate and will not be eligible to work in a school in any position.
Phillips was 37 at the time of the abuse, which happened in July 2018, according to the document.
A pending civil lawsuit filed in Harrison Circuit Court in 2019 on behalf of a child allegedly victimized by Phillips states that the boy was in Phillips’ special needs class for fourth and fifth grade.
The suit claims that the abuse began during the child’s fifth-grade year and continued for at least six months. It suggests that the abuse occurred at Phillips’ and her husband’s home in Cynthiana and says Phillips exposed the boy to sexual contact “on more than ten occasions.”
The suit alleges that Phillips admitted to the sexual contact and coached the boy on “how to evade detection.”
She “used her position of trust and authority as the child’s educator and family friend” to get access to the child, who has suffered “serious psychological and emotional distress” as a result of the abuse, according to the lawsuit.
His guardian, who filed the lawsuit, alleges that she also suffered emotional distress. The Herald-Leader is not naming the plaintiff to avoid identifying a victim of sexual abuse.
The lawsuit also names Phillips’ husband, Patrick Phillips, as a defendant, alleging that he “ignored warning signs of sexual abuse,” among other allegations.
The lawsuit said that the couple were foster parents to children placed in their custody.
In separate court filings, Patrick and Amanda Phillips deny the civil suit’s allegations.
Patrick Phillips argues in part that the lawsuit “was brought without reasonable care and without a good faith belief that there was a justiciable controversy against” him, and because of that, he says the plaintiff should be responsible for paying for his defense, “including attorneys’ fees.”
When Amanda Phillips was arrested in early 2019, WKYT reported that she was listed as a teacher at Eastside Elementary School. Harrison County Schools said then that she was no longer employed with the district because of the allegations, which the television station said involved a child who was over 12 years old at the time of the abuse.
The judge in Phillips’ criminal case ordered that she serve at least 85 percent of her six-year sentence.
Before her release, she’ll be required to complete a sex offender treatment program, according to the judgment. After she is released, she’ll be subject to five years of supervision, and she will be required to remain on the sex offender registry for the rest of her life.
This story was originally published November 19, 2021 at 7:35 PM.
