A Warren County judge ruled today the former Mason teacher convicted of having sex with five students must undergo a psychological evaluation before he will consider releasing her from prison.

Attorney Charlie H. Rittgers filed a motion in Warren County Common Pleas Court in June asking for Stacy Schuler’s release.

Schuler, 34, a former physical education teacher at Mason High School, was found guilty in October on 16 counts of sexual battery for supplying five students, most of them football players, with alcohol and having sex with them in her Springboro home in fall 2010.

Warren County Common Pleas Judge Robert Peeler, who said he didn’t buy her insanity defense, sentenced Schuler to 48 months in prison, but said she would be eligible for release after she served six months. Her six months were up on April 27.

Peeler said today he would hold a second hearing after reviewing the results of a psychological evaluation. At her sentencing, Peeler said he believes Schuler suffers psychological and substance-abuse issues.

In his motion, Rittgers said Schuler has been a model prisoner at the Ohio Reformatory for Women in Marysville. The former gym teacher and athletic trainer has been teaching yoga classes, tutoring inmates — two of whom have received their GED — and works with the cooks on providing more choices and offering more nutritious foods, according to her attorney.

He also included excerpts of letters written by 27 people on Schuler’s behalf. All of them describe her as always putting others before herself, caring for the sick and above all her passion for teaching. Vance Reid, a Mason school district teacher, wrote that his former colleague was one of the “most giving and caring teachers” he’s ever worked with.

Prosecutor David Fornshell said he will oppose early release.

“She was convicted of 16 felonies, and I don’t think serving from October to May is sufficient punishment given the offenses for what she was convicted,” he said. “That’s not even a school year.”