McMINNVILLE, Tenn. (AP) – People around this central Tennessee town know Pamela Turner as an elementary school physical education teacher, a former college basketball player and a blonde with movie-star looks.

Now, they are trying to reconcile that wholesome image with charges that she sexually assaulted one of her students, a 13-year-old boy.

“She’s absolutely gorgeous, a beautiful girl,” Warren County Sheriff Jackie Matheny said. “I just hate it for everyone.”

Turner, 27, was charged this week with 15 counts of sexual battery by an authority figure and 13 counts of statutory rape for allegedly having sex with the boy at his home and at school between November and January.

Neither Turner nor her lawyer have responded to calls seeking comment since she was released on $50,000 bail.

But investigators say Turner lived with the boy and his family for a brief time after her marriage to a high school basketball coach ended.

Warren County schools director Jerry Hale said he met with Turner for 30 minutes Jan. 26 after learning of the accusations.

“She was adamant in her defense,” Hale said. “She had a friendship, of course, with the student and the family, but she basically said she wasn’t guilty and she was shocked she’d been accused.”

Kansas State University education professor Bob Shoop, who has testified in 40 court cases involving sexual abuse in schools, said people are always surprised when a woman is involved in such cases because they assume boys are sexually aggressive and cannot be victims.

“The reality is a child is a child, regardless of the gender,” Shoop said. “It’s immoral, illegal and unethical for any educator to have sex with a student.”

The case is reminiscent of the one involving Mary Kay Letourneau, an elementary school teacher who had sex with a 12-year-old student in suburban Seattle. Letourneau eventually gave birth to two of the boy’s children. She served more than seven years in prison.

By most accounts, Turner had a respectable life. In 2003, she married Chris Turner, who would be named the Warren County High School boys basketball coach.

She had played college basketball at Tennessee Tech and Cumberland University, and got a job teaching PE and coaching girls basketball at Centertown Elementary School near McMinnville, a town of 13,000.

There were some hints of a wilder past. In 1997, while on spring break in Florida, Turner walked around a pro wrestling ring in a red bikini as “Ms. Monday Nitro” during a WCW broadcast.

Court records show Chris Turner filed for divorce Jan. 14 citing “irreconcilable differences” and “inappropriate marital conduct,” but provide no details.

In an interview with the Southern Standard in McMinnville, Chris Turner said the divorce had nothing to do with his wife’s alleged crimes. “We filed because we just didn’t get along, and we decided to go our separate ways.”

Pamela Turner’s arraignment is scheduled for Feb. 23.

Conviction on all counts could be punished by up to 100 years in prison. But District Attorney Dale Potter said it was more likely that a conviction would mean a minimum of a year to several years in prison.