TheBakersfieldCalifornian.com

A local teacher who pleaded no contest in 2007 to battery on and contributing to the delinquency of a minor for actions involving a 12-year-old male student of hers is once again teaching here, and school officials are making sure she's really eligible.

Sherry Lynn Brians, who now goes by the last name Anderson, has been substitute teaching in the Shafter-area Richland School District for at least this past school year.

Police believed Anderson, now 47, kissed a student and sent him love notes, which the student's parents found in his book bag. Under the plea bargain, two misdemeanor child molestation charges were dropped.

She served three years probation ending in August 2010, court records show, and was ordered to stay away from the boy, his family and Buttonwillow Union School District, where she worked at the time.

During her probation, a committee with the California Commission on Teacher Credentialing reviewed her credential and gave her a 60-day suspension from the classroom ending July 2009, a spokeswoman said. The review was conducted because of her conviction, the spokeswoman said.

In June 2010, Anderson received a multiple subject teaching credential, which expires in 2015, state records show.

Toni Smith, director of human resources with the Kern County Superintendent of Schools office, confirmed that Anderson is on a Kern County substitute teaching list that school districts including Richland use to choose substitute teachers.

To be put on the list, substitutes must get fingerprint clearance from the California Department of Justice and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

"She does not have any prohibitive offense from being employed with an education agency," Smith said. "And she has a teaching credential. (The credentialing commission does) a pretty thorough job."

Still, Smith said, the county office is following up with the commission for more information, and possibly will pass on information to the Schools Legal Service, KCSOS' counsel, for review.

Messages left with Anderson were not immediately returned. Richland Superintendent Ken Bergevin was not available for comment Wednesday, district officials said.

But an assistant superintendent told KERO Channel 23 she was picked out of a list provided by KCSOS.

The news surprised Kern County Supervising Deputy District Attorney Cynthia Norris, who oversees the Shafter courthouse.

"I'm not particularly happy that this can happen," Norris said. "I would think we would want our children taught by people who have not been exposed to such convictions."

Prosecutors agreed to a plea bargain in 2007, she said, because of Brians' debilitating and potentially life-threatening" medical condition at the time -- a tumor was removed from her head in late 2005, before her arrest, according to Californian archives. It caused her to collapse in a classroom and also to lose hearing in one ear.

The district attorney's office decided to not go ahead with a trial, Norris said.

Lori Rizo, a Richland teacher and parent, said she was also concerned. Anderson had subbed in her class, and subbed throughout the school year last year at Richland Junior High, she said.

"It's the nature of our business and our job duties to work with children," she said. "For someone to admit to this all and be hired ... how does that happen? My hope is that this did not slip through the cracks."