- Ellen Phillips admitted to having sexual relations with several teenage boys
- She pleaded guilty to attempting to entice a minor online to engage in sexual conduct
- Phillips, 38, worked as a teaching assistant at Woodlawn Elementary School in Boyle County, Kentucky
A teaching assistant has admitted to having sex with several teenage boys while she worked at an elementary school in Kentucky.
Ellen Phillips, formerly Ellen Shell, 38, of Danville, pleaded guilty Friday to attempted online enticement of a minor to engage in sexual conduct.
She admitted having sexual relations with “numerous teenage boys”, mostly aged between 14 and 16, in Boyle and Garrard countries in 2022.
Phillips worked as a teaching assistant at Woodlawn Elementary School in Boyle County but was suspended when the allegations emerged.
She will be sentenced in April and faces a minimum prison sentence of ten years.
Ellen Phillips was arrested in April and charged with third-degree rape. She has now admitted to having sexual relationships with multiple teenage boys in 2022
Phillips communicated with the victims on Snapchat, Facebook and via text message and then often met with them to have sex.
She admitted in one instance that on December 20, 2022, she repeatedly tried to persuade a 15-year-old boy to sneak out of his house to meet her for sex.
When the boy told her he couldn’t get out because his mother was awake, Phillips offered him alcohol and oral sex and suggested excuses he could give his mother.
The boy told her he couldn’t leave to meet her.
The mother of one of the victims, who wished to remain anonymous, told FOX 56 she went to high school with Phillips and their children grew up together.
She said: ‘These boys are unaware of the laws that protect them and didn’t want to come forward because they thought they would get in trouble.’
She said Phillips had purchased alcohol for her son at the time of the incident: “He said she brought them alcohol three to four times. I can’t wrap my head around all the things she’s done.”
Phillips was arrested in April 2023, when two minors came forward claiming she raped them three times between July 6 and August 15, 2022, when they were 16.
She was suspended from her role as a teaching assistant at Woodlawn Elementary School (pictured) when the allegations emerged
She was charged with three counts of third-degree rape.
When the allegations came to light, she was suspended from her role at Woodlawn Elementary School.
Boyle County Superintendent Mike LaFavers wrote to parents at the time that police had notified the district of a legal matter involving unlawful conduct by a Woodlawn Elementary classified employee.
The province did not name the employee but said he had been placed on administrative leave.
Before Woodlawn, Phillips worked at Lancaster Elementary School in Garrard County.
