Gregory Thomas pleaded guilty Thursday to a felony count of taking indecent liberties and 11 counts of assault on a female.
He received a three-year suspended sentence and three years of probation.
Thomas had faced more than a dozen charges involving female students at Green Hope High School in Cary.
He also has to register as a sex offender and can't work with the school system again.
Cary police had said the incidents involved two 14-year-old girls, three 15-year-old girls and two 16-year-old girls. In an October 2004 interview with WRAL, Thomas denied the accusations and said that the only physical contact he made was an attempt to keep his students safe.
"If my hand is on the brake and yours is on the accelerator, what am I supposed to do? I'll do what I'm trained do," he said in October 2004. "If I touch you, I did not mean to make bodily contact with you. But if you're about to run me into an 18-wheel truck, I'm going to do something about it."
Thomas was working for Jordan Driving School, a company contracted by Wake County Public Schools to teach driver's education. He was fired after the allegations surfaced.
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