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).

Amy Burke is a 32 year old physical education teacher from Perty Amoboy, New Jersey. She’s accused of sleeping with a 13 year old student:

Officials are accusing a female teacher at a Perth Amboy middle school of having sex with a 13-year-old boy.

Amy Burke is suspended with pay from her job teaching physical education and health at McGinnis Middle School. The 32-year-old is married and has a 3-year-old son.

Middlesex County prosecutors say the relationship with the student began in March and continued at least through the summer.

Burke was responsible for sex ed at the school, which I’m sure will have an effect on the way the story is reported. She also coached cheerleading. Cheer coaches must be a little off because they show up on this site a little more often than you’d expect.

Jodi Thorp is a 39 year old mother of three and a former teacher at Paterson schools in New Jersey. She’s pled guilty in a plea deal to one count of child endangerment:

Jodi M. Thorp, a 39-year-old mother of three, pleaded guilty Wednesday to one count of child endangerment for fondling the student in her Mendham Township home in 2001. In addition to jail time, Thorp will be placed on probation for up to five years, register as a convicted sex offender and pay almost $1,000 in fines.

The former health instructor and seventh-grade social studies teacher also will have to forfeit her teaching license and be supervised by a parole officer for at least 15 years after her probation.

Thorp, who faced charges of having sexual intercourse with the student during a 16-month period between 2001 and 2002, would have faced a sentence of 20 years or more in prison if she had been tried and convicted.

[...]

Thorp was suspended from teaching in November 2002 when school officials heard of her activities with the victim, who was one of many members of HUGS who would go on educational outings with her and were invited for weekend sleep-overs at her house.

Thorp, who was pregnant at the time, was charged with aggravated sexual assault and child endangerment in February 2003, but has been free on $75,000 bail. Previous trial dates were postponed because she was pregnant.

Thorp will be back in court for sentencing on September 15.