Bird is a 25 year old teacher who worked at East Hill Christian School in Florida. She’s charged with two counts of lewd or lascivious battery and two counts of unlawful sexual activity with her student:
At one point in her career, she earned sterling performance reports from East Hill Christian School, which the student attended before moving to another school.
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Her attorney, Jerry Allred, asked potential jurors how they felt about Mary Kay Letourneau and Debra Lafave, teachers who were charged with having sex with their underage students in sensational cases that grabbed national attention.
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Bird was a first-year teacher at Escambia High School when the allegations surfaced in October 2005.
The aunt of the student, who is now 16, called the school and accused the teacher of engaging in a sexual relationship with the unidentified boy, said Escambia County School District spokesman Ronnie Arnold.
The aunt reported that the alleged relationship began at East Hill Christian School two years ago when Bird was a science teacher there and the boy was a student, Arnold said.
The Escambia County School District suspended Bird, a reading teacher, with pay after the allegations surfaced.
A month later, the School Board fired her.
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Bird is a 2003 graduate of Pensacola Christian College and a 1999 graduate of New Life Christian School in Virginia, Minn., according to her resume.
Interesting background if these charges turn out to be true.
{ 11 comments… read them below or add one }
She should have never received jail time. She was misguided, but is not a sexual preditor. It was a mistake on her part, but 16 and 24 yrs. are not that far apart and it can be difficult to differentiate between sex and love and obsession. Let her out of jail and probation is enough. She is not a preditor and should not be registered as a sex offender.
She is ABSOLUTELY a sex offender. She is a grown woman, an adult who was in a position of power and respect.
She had a sexual relationship with a CHILD – a fifteen-year-old whose brain wasn’t finished developing, who couldn’t predict the consequences of his actions, who wasn’t even old enough to DRIVE or WORK or DRINK or VOTE, who is a MINOR, who is still legally considered to be under his PARENTS’ care.
The position of power that she was in would have precluded any possibility of an equal “loving” relationship that she could have had with anyone – she was his superior and had authority and power over him, let alone the fact that she had sex with a child.
Ten years’ age difference isn’t much if you’re talking about two adults. Ten years’ age difference between a teenager and an adult is HUGE. She refuses to take responsibility for what she has done. She was wrong, she should serve jail time, she should have to register as an offender, and she should not be allowed around teenagers again.
Perhaps if Ms. Bird was thin and Blonde she would have walked.
Of course she should spend time in jail. She knew what she was doing was wrong, but she ‘felt and thus believed’ that it wasn’t wrong. Pedophiles believe what they do is right because it ‘feels’ right, and they are fighting to legalize ’sex with children.’ What makes Ms. Bird different from any other pedophile?
She should receive therapy and learn to ‘control’ her sexual preference for children.
how can a person get into contact with Janelle Bird. I think she was seduced by the boy .not the other way around.
I want to know what prison she is sent to so that I can write to her, and e-mail her if they have access to a computer…I feel for her some compassion even though what she did was morally wrong, I still feel compassion to her, and I want to let her know it…..
this is sick
With an Aunt like you, who needs enemys….Why didn’t you just keep your nose out of the affair between your nephue and his teacher….
Where was she at when I was going to school, she would have never gotten into trouble, except pregnent maybe…..
Man where was she at when I was going to school, I could have used some of that prime kind of tutoring…She wouldn’t be in trouble eighther, unless I knocked her up.
The teacher might have been the leader, but the boy knew what he was doing. Remember it takes TWO cats to make a kitten