A former Middleboro High School teacher pleaded guilty Tuesday to raping one of his teenage students and possession of child pornography, but he won't spend any time in jail.

Gregory Pathiakis, 26, of Brockton, who quit his teaching job after school officials questioned his off-duty contact with students, pleaded guilty in Brockton Superior Court to one count of rape of a child, enticement of a child under 16, five counts of possession of child pornography and one count of distribution of harmful material to a child.

Judge Suzanne V. Delvecchio gave Pathiakis a suspended, 21/2-year jail term, followed by five years probation — rejecting the prosecutor's plea for at least four years in state prison.

Pathiakis is also banned from working with children or any volunteer activities involving children.

Prosecutors said they were disappointed by the sentence but stopped short of openly criticizing the judge's decision not to lock up Pathiakis, who is now required to register as a sex offender.

"That is certainly disheartening to see that there is not some sort of incarceration," Plymouth County District Attorney Timothy J. Cruz said. "He was in a position of authority over these kids."

Flanagan said the boy went to Pathiakis' apartment where a sex act occurred. There was no force involved, but a 15-year-old, under law, cannot consent to any sexual relations. The boy initially told authorities he was attacked in Pathiakis' Jeep while at a Brockton parking lot.

The boy's father, reading a statement the teen prepared for the court, urged the judge to send Pathiakis to jail.

"I feel you deserve jail," the boy wrote in a statement read by his father. "You are a disgrace to all teachers."

Assertions are being made that if it would not have been a homosexual act, that Pathiakis would have been given a stiffer sentence.

"Delvecchio, the first woman to be appointed Chief Justice of the Massachusetts Superior Court, was honored in 2000 as the keynote speaker at the Massachusetts Gay and Lesbian Bar Association's annual dinner."