The victim in the case of a former Lawrence teacher convicted of a sex crime said Monday the teacher should not go to prison.

“It was agreed by both of us. Nothing was forced,” the 16-year-old boy said about the relationship.

During testimony in Douglas County District Court, the boy also said he would have no contact with Meredith L. Kane, 24, if she were placed on probation, rather than given a prison term.

Kane, who last year was a first-year English teacher at Lawrence High School, pleaded guilty in July to one count of aggravated indecent liberties with a child.

She was arrested in March for having a consensual sexual relationship with the then-15-year-old student. That relationship began in August 2006.

“I take full responsibility for what happened, and I apologize to everybody here,” Kane said Monday during her sentencing hearing.

Kane’s testimony will conclude Wednesday afternoon.

Her attorney, James Rumsey, has asked Douglas County District Judge Stephen Six to depart from sentencing guidelines and consider probation. Kane faces at least five years in prison.

According to therapists who have testified, both Kane and the victim have been diagnosed with and undergone treatment for bipolar disorder, which affected their judgment about the relationship and caused them to lie about the nature of it.

Kane had met the boy when he was a Central Junior High School student and she was a student teacher. He confided in her about severe problems he was having with depression and drug use, Kane said.

At the start of the following school year – in August 2006 – Kane became an LHS teacher, and the boy was a student in her study-hall class. Their relationship developed over several months.

Both denied having sex when pressed by his parents, school administrators and police about spending time together outside school.

“It’s kind of obvious. It would have caused a big deal of trouble,” the boy said.

Kane’s therapist, Dennis Detweiler, testified she was making progress in recent sessions. He said it would set her back if she would be sent to prison.

“I see her as low risk to offend,” Detweiler said.

He also outlined an aggressive treatment strategy that would include Kane taking medication, having no contact with minors on her own and, possibly, home monitoring through a bonding company.

But Assistant District Attorney Amy McGowan questioned Kane’s behavior in August, when police say she saw the boy several times, a violation of her bond agreement.

Six revoked her bond and ordered Kane to jail, where she has been since.

According to testimony Monday, the boy wrote her notes and initiated contact, but McGowan said as the adult it was Kane’s responsibility to say no.

Detweiler ceased his treatment of her then, but he recently picked it up again.

“My concern for Meredith is and always has been her ongoing development of adult-appropriated skills,” he said.

The Lawrence school board suspended Kane after she was arrested in March and voted in May not to renew her contract.