A teaching assistant has been charged with sexual assault after admitting a physical relationship with a special needs student she described as her 'soul mate'.
Laura Bates, 44, said she had sex with the 17-year-old boy several times since the beginning of November.
The relationship was discovered after Bates told a relative that she could not live without the teenager.
According to police, the relationship had been developing for more than a year and turned physical early last month.
Bates, of Hilbert, Wisconsin, has appeared in court charged with four felony counts of sexual assault of a student by school staff.
The married mother-of-three was arrested on Monday after the relationship came to light, and resigned from her job at Appleton West High School, Wisconsin.