LOWER MORELAND, Pa. – A Pennsylvania math teacher who lured a 17-year-old student into a sexual relationship was sentenced last week to a month in jail.

Erica Ginnetti, a 35-year-old mother of three, is scheduled to report to the Montgomery County Correctional Facility April 17 to serve a 30-day jail sentence imposed by Judge Garrett D. Page, who described the teacher as “dangling candy,” according to media reports.

Ginnetti taught advanced placement calculus and other high-level math courses at Moreland High School when she approached a male student at a 2013 prom and started flirting with him, Philly.com reports.

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She asked the teen if he wanted to work out with her, days later the boy emailed the teacher and she sent him her cell phone number. The two maintained daily communication, which eventually led to Ginnetti sending explicit photos and videos to the student, including images in a bikini and a thong, as well as a strip tease video, according to court documents cited by the Huffington Post.

“That’s candy to a young man,” Page told Ginnetti during her sentencing April 3, Philly.com reports.

In July 2013 Ginnetti arranged to meet the victim at a Starbucks, and the two drove to an industrial park and had sex in the teacher’s car.

“One bad day because of sexual hunger has resulted in all this avalanche of harm,” Page said.

The victim detailed how the experience changed his life in a letter to the judge, writing that his grades dropped his senior year, and he now struggles with social situations. The teen and his family were also harassed in their community, in person and on social media, Philly.com reports.

“He had a point in his life that was dark” for several months after the relationship, Assistant District Attorney Sophia Polites said.

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Ginnetti pleaded guilty in December to institutional sexual assault and disseminating sexually explicit materials.

Page sentenced Ginnetti last Friday to 30 days in jail, followed by 60 days of house arrest. She’ll then be on parole for another 18 months, and probation for another three years after that. Ginnetti is required to register as a sex offender for the next 25 years, MontgomeryNews.com reports.

Page could have sentenced Ginnetti to up to 14 years in prison, according to Philly.com.

The teacher’s attorney, Marc Neff, requested that Ginnetti serve her sentence on house arrest, which would have allowed her to care for her three children, ages 8, 11, and 14, the Huffington Post and Philly.com report.

The judge declined.

“Life is not fair,” Page said.

“I don’t believe you’re a bad human being,” he said. “You did a bad act. So I have to punish you.”

Polities believes the sentence was appropriate.

“The reason why we asked for jail time in this case is because of the seriousness of the offense,” Polities told the Montgomery News. “We as a society, we put great trust in our teachers, in our schools. And she betrayed that trust; she was supposed to be a role model. She was supposed to be someone that provided him with advice.

“Anything less would have depreciated the seriousness of the crime,” Polities said.

The relatively light sentence was undoubtedly influenced by dozens of letters sent to Page in support of the former teacher. Ginnetti was fired from her teaching position, and now teaches fitness classes and volunteers at her church. She told the court she’s working to rebuild her marriage and relationship with her children.

“I’ve been knocked down to the lowest I have been in my life,” Ginnetti said, according to the Montgomery News.