Teacher sex scandals

Jennifer Gwynn Tarkenton is a 34 year old Seminole County (Florida) special education middle school teacher. She is facing three charges of sexual molestation after police found her with a 14 year old boy in her car. Post sex apparently. No word on whether or not the boy was one of her students.

Police said the boy snuck out of his house to be with Tarkenton, who then went to a pharmacy, bought a box of condoms, and then … well ya know.

Tarkenton is out on $10,000 bail, and she is currently suspended without pay.

Jenna Ashley Herrmann is a 23 year old teacher’s assistant at Pittsville Elementary and Middle School. She is facing charges that she allegedly had sex with a 14 year old boy. Herrmann has officially been charged with “two counts of second-degree custody child abuse, two counts of third-degree sex offense, two counts of sex abuse of a minor and two counts of fourth-degree sex offense”.

Jenna Herrmann allegedly had sex with the boy over a two month long period starting at the beginning of October. She was busted not by the victim, but by other students. Three kids apparently came forward, one claiming to have seen pictures of Herrman and the victim in the act, another saying they saw a letter from Herrman to the victim asking him to have sex with her. No word on whether Herrman asked the boy to check a box labeled yes or a box labeled no as a response.

Herrmann was apparently a little sex crazed, as she allegedly asked another boy to have sex with her as well, but couldn’t because the kid’s sister was home.

Jenna Ashley Herrmann isn’t a degreed teacher just yet; she was placed as an assistant at Pittsville as part of an internship through Salisbury University.

Kelsey Peterson is a 25 year old former eighth grade teacher from Omaha, Nebraska. In one of the more sensational teacher sex scandals I have ever seen, she is accused of kidnapping a thirteen year old boy and taking him to Mexico, where she was apprehended on November 2.

The boy was forced to stay in Mexico due to being an illegal immigrant. Not entirely sure what his family situation is, but hopefully he’s not stuck in Mexico with his immediate family still back in Omaha, cause you know, that would kind of suck.

The boy didn’t describe Peterson as his girlfriend, but did admit to having sex with her multiple times. Not to be crass, but if you look at the picture up above you might be able to see why. Not really a braggable offense there, apart from her being his teacher and all.

Peterson plead not guilty yesterday in federal court to “transporting a minor to engage in sexual activity”. She is being charged in both federal and state court of different things, so it will be interesting to see who ultimately gets their hands on her. Her main defense at this point is apparently that the boy might not really be 13. Her attorney is disputing the validity of his Mexican birth certificate.

She also probably has a psychological defense since the federal prosecutor told the judge yesterday that Peterson has told police that she is “in love with the boy and said she was not sure she would do anything differently”.

Erica Chevillar, the former teacher who caused a stir after posing in a bikini, is now planning on posing for Playboy:

For Chevillar the opportunity to pose for Playboy was too much to pass up. She modeled before in college and says the $31,000 she makes as a teacher just doesn’t cut the bills in Boca.

Chevillar will be appearing in the March issue of Playboy, which came out today.

(Make sure to check out more Erica Chevillar pictures).

Carrie McCandless, out on bail, has been arrested for a second time for violating terms of her bail agreement. Prosecutors are saying that McCandless allegedly contacted the victim just days after appearing in court with him on a preliminary hearing:

McCandless, 30, faces charges of sexual assault and contributing to the delinquency of a minor. She was ordered not to have contact with the alleged victim - a former student - or any other minors as a condition of her release on $20,000 bail.

According to a Denver’s 7 news report, prosecutors alleged in a motion filed Thursday that McCandless contacted the student Wednesday, two days after appearing in the same courtroom with him for a preliminary hearing.

Prosecutors asked the judge to revoke McCandless’ bail. An arrest warrant reportedly was issued for her Friday.

As of Monday evening, it didn’t appear as if McCandless had turned herself in.

A plea agreement was being negotiated prior to these events; it’s unclear what will happen now however.

Carrie McCandless originally turned herself in after allegedly having inappropriate sexual contact with the student on a field trip to Estes Park.

The most interesting little twist in the story has to be the fact that McCandless’ husband is the principal at the school where Carrie formerly taught. I’m sure that’s made for a fun work environment for Mr. McCandless.

You kind of have to feel for this woman, not because she might be innocent (I have no idea), but because she was arrested on Thanksgiving:

A 31-year-old female English teacher at Trabuco Hills High School has been arrested on suspicion of having sex with one of her male students.

Alyssa Ann Johnson, 31, was arrested Thanksgiving night at her Tustin home, sheriff’s spokesman Jim Amormino said.

Deputies began investigating the allegation after a student at Trabuco confided in someone at the school that he had had sex with Johnson.

[…]

Authorities declined to give the boy’s age but said he is 14 to 18 years old and alleges that the encounter happened over the summer, Amormino said.

Johnson has taught at Trabuco for the past four years.

Johnson posted $50,000 bail and was released from Orange County Jail.

Kumi Houston is a 47 year old special ed teacher’s aide. She was arrested on November 22 for having an inappropriate relationship with an elementary school student:

The complaint filed by detectives with the Williamson County SHeriff’s Department states: “On November 18, 2006, Kumi Houston admitted that while at her home she and the 11-year-old boy went into her bedroom. That in the bedroom she allowed the 11-year old boy to raise her bra and touch and kiss her breasts.”

The alleged incident apparently happened about five months ago, which I’m sure will become a point of contention. No word yet on when Houston’s first hearing will take place.

Regina McKay is a 33 year old Geronimo, Texas High School computer teacher. She’s charged with second-degree rape:

According to court records, the boy was 17 last March. He says Regina McKay offered to buy him cigarettes and alcohol if he would come to her home in Walters and have sex with her. He says he did.

Back at school, the boy says McKay would make him sit beside her at a table and she would rub her foot up and down his legs. If he tried to move, he says she would get mad.

So it’s not so much that she seduced the kid. It’s more like she bartered with him. Good lord.

There’s supposedly another kid she was involved with:

But in the same report, a 16-year-old boy says McKay text messaged him and said, “what’s up, i don’t think you can handle it.” The teen says she was referring to sex.

He claims he later went to McKay’s home and had sex with her in the her living room, while her kids were sleeping upstairs.

Classy.

McKay won’t be back in court until January. She’s currently out on a whopping $2,000 bond.

Theresa Getz was a teacher’s aide in Michiana, Indiana. She’s accused of sleeping with a 14 year old student:

Police say the relationship started when Getz asked for help putting her lawn mower together and then asked the student to come back to help her kids with their 4-H animals.

The student told authorities she came on to him and they’d had sex approximately seven times.

According to court documents, the 14-year-old says he got a sexually transmitted virus from Getz. He also said he stopped having sex with her when she started getting serious and wanting to run away with him.

Getz told police she thinks the student is saying this because she turned down his advances, court documents say.

I think this is the first time with these cases that I’ve ever heard of a teacher (allegedly) giving the kid an STD.

This one’s just a little crazy. Diane Cherchio West was a Bayonne, New Jersey schoolteacher. She … well … I don’t even know how to explain this one, I’ll just quote:

Despite indications of misconduct and at least one request that she be fired, a woman impregnated by a student was able to work as a teacher and guidance counselor in the Bayonne school system for two decades, according to a published report.

Even after being accused of statutory rape in 2001 by a teen friend of the son she had with the student, Diane Cherchio West ultimately was allowed to take early retirement and was given a farewell party, The New York Times reported in Tuesday’s newspapers.

By then, she had divorced the one-time student.

She pleaded guilty in 2005 to sexually assaulting her son’s friend, who had moved in to her home.

That friend, Christopher Castlegrande, is now 21. He sued West, the Bayonne district, and administrators in 2004, accusing them of failing in their responsibilities to protect him.

West settled for $400,000 last year, according to court records, but the remainder of the case is pending.

You really have to wonder what on earth her school system was thinking, but maybe 2001 was a simpler, gentler time, when schools had a tougher time believing teachers slept with students. Maybe.

Or maybe not:

Early in her career, she was seen fondling a 13-year-old boy at a school dance, school personnel later told investigators.

“Diane has a thing for young boys,” the principal at the time, Daniel Doyle, said he recalled being told, according to court records reviewed by The Times. In the statement, he said he wrote the superintendent that she be fired and was surprised to see that in the fall she was a guidance counselor at the high school.

“I accepted it as a political maneuver,” Doyle told the newspaper.

The superintendent who transferred her said “That’s a very serious matter, and I would have treated it that way if I had been informed of it,”, but it’s tough to tell how people didn’t know that something was up:

At the high school, she supervised an 11th-grader, Steven West, became pregnant by him and married him after he graduated in 1985, The Times said.

Mayor Joseph Doria told the newspaper that he and others knew that the then 31-year-old had married a former student but did not seem to notice that the child, Steve Jr., was born while the father was still in school.

“No one bothered to do the math,” Doria said.

This one I think takes the cake. I’ve come across a lot of bizarre stuff while being the admin for this site, but yeah, this one’s the strangest. Most of these cases boil down to a woman being an idiot, but this one strikes me more as a story of a school district being criminally negligent. I thought nothing would surprise me anymore, but I was apparently wrong.

This story is so incredible it’s even made New York Times (although it is kind of a local story for them).