Cristina Preston, 44, was arrested this week amid allegations that she had sexual relations with a 14-year-old male student.

Preston was taken into custody on Tuesday, but has since made bail which, according to the Ledger-Enquirer, came to $25,000 each on two counts of child molestation and $10,000 each on one count of sexual assault on a person in custody and one count of enticing a child for indecent purposes.  Upon her release she resigned from her position with Veterans Memorial Middle School.  She had taught special education in the school district for 19 years.

Apparently the entire series of events happened very quickly.  Reports indicate that the statutory rape occurred at 12:30 AM on Monday in Cooper Creek Park in Columbus, GA, and by 10 PM on Monday the police were called to the boy’s home.  The following day Preston was taking into custody.

Should Preston be convicted on all charges, and her terms stacked consecutively, she is facing up to 120 years in prison.  The count of sexual assault on a person in custody is applied to any teacher and student from the same school, and that charge alone carries 25 to 50 years.

There is no word yet as to what evidence there was to make authorities act so quickly.

[Thanks to Jo for the tip]

A 61-year-old elementary school teacher in Los Angeles has been arrested for committing lewd acts on 23 boys and girls, ages 6 to 10, between 2008 and 2010 at Miramonte Elementary School in Los Angeles.

Police arrested Mark Berndt this week after a year-long investigation began when a technician in a CVS Pharmacy film development lab alerted authorities to disturbing pictures he was developing for the teacher.  The 35mm film showed students blindfolded with their mouths covered in clear tape with some of them being fed a white substance later discovered to be his semen on a spoon.  Other students were shown to have large Madagascar-style cockroaches crawling on their faces while bound.

Berndt had taught at the school for 30 years, but was fired in January 2011 when school authorities were alerted to the investigation.

Apparently Mr. Berndt would lock his classroom door and tell the children they were playing a game which involved a taste test where he would put his seman on cookies or a spoon and feed it to them.  It was discovered to be his own bodily fluids after a white bottle was seen in one of the photos and then found in the trash of his classroom.  Once discovered the police ran tests on the contents and found it to be Berndt’s seman inside.

When the police executed a search warrant of his home, they found 100 other similar photos to the ones that had led to the investigation and an adult bondage DVD that depicted similar acts to the ones he had carried out with the students.

He appeared in court today and had his bail set out $23 million.

While most of the teacher sex scandals I write up are reprehensible enough with a teacher having sex with one student, this man, in my book, should the evidence hold up, qualifies as an out and out monster.  Seeing as I won’t be sitting on his jury, I’m just going to go ahead and say that should he be found to be guilty, there is truly no punishment that will be severe enough.  He has committed a crime against these children that is difficult to even comprehend, and I can’t say strongly enough how badly I feel for each of them and their families.

[thanks to the multiple people who sent this to me]

Alexandra Elizabeth McLean, 27, was arrested in Colorado after allegations surfaced that she had sexual intercourse with a 17-year-old that was playing a role in the school play she was directing.

Hired last summer to replace a drama teacher that had retired after three decades of service to Englewood High School, Alexandra Elizabeth McLean turned herself into the Englewood police on January 4 after the allegations surfaced.  The alleged incident is said to have taken place on the night of either November 15 or 16 after she offered to drive the student home after a performance of Lend Me a Tenor.

A 29-year-old woman with a high school aged younger sister informed her that a friend of her’s was bragging about having had sex with McLean.  The woman informed authorities of the information and on November 28 McLean’s car and cell phone were seized as evidence in the case has led to her facing two felony counts of sexual assault on a child by a person in a position of authority.  Explicit text messages were found on the phone between the teacher and student.

When the 17-year-old student was questioned by the police, he admitted to having initiated kissing with McLean, and that the sex had indeed taken place had been consensual between the two.  The teacher had been known for giving him rides home after practice which had raised some initial concerns among the faculty of the school, but it appears there had been no follow-up by anyone.

McLean was placed on administrative leave by the school district, but has since resigned from her position.  She turned herself into the 18th Judicial District on January 4, but is now free on $25,000 bond.  She had previously been a teacher in Michigan before taking up her post at Englewood HS as a English language arts and drama teacher in August 2011.

Once again we see a case of text messaging being a fairly significant factor in one of these cases, and you have to wonder at what point these teachers will learn not to leave a trail behind them, but so long as it helps stop them, lets hope they don’t catch on.

A Georgia teacher has been charged with numerous counts in regards to a sexual relationship she had with one of her teenage students.

Amy Bass Jackson, 35, was arrested last week after an investigation by the police into allegations made by the parents of one of her 14-year-old male students.  She was accused of having sex with the boy, and after a week long investigation she was charged with aggravated child molestation, three counts of child molestation, statutory rape, enticing a child for indecent purposes, sexual assault by a person with supervisory or disciplinary authority, two counts computer or electronic child exploitation, sexual exploitation of children and six counts of furnishing harmful material to minors according to CoastalCourier.  She was arrested last Wednesday, but Ms. Jackson resigned her position as a language arts teacher at William James Middle School as soon as the investigation began.

As per the usual trend these days with teacher sex scandals, Ms. Jackson apparently used social networks and cell phones to communicate with the unnamed victim.  The Bulloch County Board of Education has already stated that they will be reviewing the incident and possibly enacting new rules governing what contact teachers may have with students through various electronic means.

While there has been no mention yet of what evidence there is against Ms. Bass exactly, the number of different charges, and the mentioning of social networks and cell phones suggests there must be some evidence, but that is pure speculation on my part.  As with all of these cases, though, one has to wonder how things get to this point.  Is there nothing in these teacher’s minds that could potentially tell them what they are doing is wrong?  One has to wonder.

Thanks, Jo for the tip.

A 40-year-old high school teacher at Upper Dublin High School in Pennsylvania has been charged with multiple counts in relation to an inappropriate relationship with a student.

Cheryl Bremble, a special education teacher at the school, has had a laundry list of charges filed against her in relation to an inappropriate relationship she had with one of her students.  The charges include endangering the welfare of a child, corruption of a minor, obscene and other sexual materials, unlawful contact with a minor, criminal use of a communication facility and harassment.

The allegations say that Ms. Bremble formed a special bond with the student, and between Oct. 2010 and May 2011, she started to spend with her outside of school, including taking her shopping and buying her expensive clothes.  At some point during this time period, she also gave the girl a sex toy during school hours on school property.  She is said to have sent the student numerous sexually explicit text messages that included asking if she had used the toy.

On May 27th it is alleged that Bremble sent the student a text revealing that she was bisexual and that she thought the girl was ‘hot.”  On May 31st the student is said to have told her parents in tears of the sexually explicit texts, and at the time they contacted authorities.  The police contacted Bremble on June 6th, and she is said to have confessed to the text messages and the gift of the toy at that time.

Ms. Bremble has been suspended from her position pending the results of the investigation.  She was booked into jail and is currently free on $25.000 bail.

Once again, as I discussed on this week’s episode of Scattercast, why do people in these situations feel so compelled to use texting?  Just about every teacher sex scandal I write about involves texting being their undoing, yet they keep doing it.  If they can’t at least ponder how wrong what they’re doing is, you would think they would at least have some knowledge on what leads to them getting caught.

As always, I am just left to shake my head at the stupidity and evil of these situations.

A teacher at Boiling Springs High School has been charged with sexual battery on a student.

Abby Kate McElhenny, 23, was charged with the sexual battery of a 16-year-old senior at Boiling Springs High School.  Ms. McElhenny was a Spanish teacher and swim coach at the school until she resigned in the wake of the relationship being discovered after a relative of the student alerted the authorities.  She turned herself into authorities the day after her resignation, and was charged with the sexual battery of a student.  The police have also subpoenaed 750 texts that were exchanged between the teacher and student that reportedly were seeing one another from Dec. to May.

What makes this case different than others is that McElhenny is being charged under a recently enacted law that forbids sex between a teacher and student no matter what their age.  The age of consent in South Carolina is 16, and the boy’s parents have signed a waiver saying that they do not wish to press charges.  Some have said that charges being pressed against her is wrong as they are both of the age of consent, and that her punishment should be restricted to the loss of her job.  The problem with this concept is that a teacher is always viewed as someone that is charged with the care of minors while they are on school property.  It does not matter that the boy was legally able to consent to sexual intercourse with McElhenny, she was still in a position of power over him.

I’m sorry, but there is never an excuse for a teacher to be having sex with a student in my opinion.  While criminal charges don’t pop up from instances of it happening in college, if it’s happening in high school, no matter what the ages, it should be considered illegal.

Could someone else explain to me why it seems like every teacher sex scandal now involves text messages? Do none of these people read the stories of how those always come back to haunt you?

Stacy Hopkins, a teacher in Tennessee, has been arrested in connection with allegations that she had sex with two underage male students.

A physical education teacher and assistant girl’s basketball coach at Arlington High School in Arlington, Tennessee has been charged with two counts of aggravated statutory rape by an authority figure and two counts of solicitation, exploitation of a minor.  Stacy Hopkins, 28, allegedly texted nude photos of herself to two male students aged 16 and 18, although the older one was 17 at the time of the instances.  She is also said to have engaged in sexual intercourse with both students.

Hopkins came to the attention of the school when her ex-boyfriend phoned an assistant principal to inform her of the nude photos that were sent to the cell phones of the students.  When confronted with the allegations, Ms. Hopkins reportedly confessed to the crimes according to an affidavit.  When the students were questioned by authorities, they also confirmed the text messages and the sexual intercourse.

According to The Commercial Appeal, her Facebook status was set to “Teaching high school students what not to do or how to do it without getting caught. :-)”  Yes, with a smiley face.

Hopkins has been put on unpaid administrative leave from the school where she has been a teacher since Aug. 2005.

It never fails to amaze me that no matter how many teacher sex scandals I’ve covered over the years, they never cease to amaze me in their depravity.  No, just one student is enough, you have to go for two.  While you can sometimes go, “Ok, fine, it’s wrong you slept with this student, but perhaps there is some bizarre chance you actually fell in love with them,” but two?  What possible excuse is there for that?

I’ll answer that for you, there is absolutely no excuse for that.

A substitute teacher at the Robert L. Craig School in Moonachie, New Jersey has been arrested on charges stemming from sexual conduct with a 14-year-old boy at the school.

Patricia Gallegos, 24, was arrested last week in Moonachie, NJ and charged with one count of second-degree child endangerment. She was taken into custody afternoon of questioning by the Bergen County Prosecutor John L. Molinelli’s Sex Crimes and Child Abuse Unit. She was booked and had bail set at $20,000. Due to the nature of the charges it implies that nothing physical happened between the two, but there was some sort of relationship between the two since this past March.

Gallegos has been released from her teaching duties which saw substituting a few times a month at the elementary school.  She is also said to be engaged to marry a U.S. Marine next year according to the Cliffview Pilot.

While there is no indication of what exactly the nature of the relationship was between Gallegos and the student, and while it happened within the city limits of Moonachie, nothing occurred on the actual school grounds.

While I have absolutely no idea what in the world the nature of this relationship could have possibly been, but for her to have been interviewed for hours and then charged, there had to have been something there for them to have thought they could charge her with, but it is truly puzzling what it could have been.

This is a definite first in the teacher sex scandals I’ve covered over the years.

A 4th grade teacher at McDonnell Elementary School in Alabama has been arrested on seven counts of sexual abuse of a child less than 12-years-old.

Harvey Knotts was arrested on Thursday following accusations that he had molested five students at the school.  While those charges are bad enough, a search on his identity in police computers turned up the fact that he is wanted out of Bermuda for sexually attacking a high school-aged girl in the country.  The police from that case have been searching for him, but were unaware of his presence in Alabama until he was arrested.  The incident is said to have happened while Knotts was a teacher at Cedarbridge Academy in the island nation.

Knotts is currently being held on $140,000 bond in the Madison County Jail.

While I believe in innocence until proven guilty, if Knotts is found guilty, he’s just disgusting.  While most of the teacher sex scandals I write about are sick, they are more of the stupidity type, and not the work of a serial molester.  Again, if proven guilty, this man is just a monster.

Thanks, Jo for the tip.

Barbara Anderson, a 37-year-old math teacher at Kentlake High School in Kent, WA has been charged with first-degree sexual misconduct with a minor.

Anderson was arrested in late March after it was discovered that the 17-year-old student she was allegedly involved with had told his uncle that he was having sex with a teacher.  Once brought to the attention of the police the investigation discovered that the student had gone to Anderson after transferring into her math class for additional help.  As time wore on he told her of his personal problems and she eventually gave him her cell number so that the could communicate privately.

Court documents report that the two became friendlier over a social network (which was named, but, yeah, I’m sure we can all figure out which one it was), and also began heavily texting one another.  The teen’s mother said that between Jan. 25th and Feb. 21st the pair sent over 800 text messages to one another.  There is evidence of at least one meeting between the two in the boy’s car where sexual acts were performed, and Anderson that asking via text when they could meet up to do it again.

According to The Seattle Times, the student was suspended from school on Feb. 4th due to a fighting, and a teary-eyed Anderson supposedly asked school administrators to reconsider their decision.  Four days later Anderson attempted to talk to the parents about the student texting her about his problems, this caused the mother to get suspicious and look into the cellphone account to find the copious amount of texts between the two.  This was when the uncle told the boy’s mother of what he had bragged about and that is when she went to the police.

The age of sexual consent in Washington state is actually 16-years-old except in the case of the adult being a teacher or in a position of power over the teen, and then that age increases to 18.  Anderson is currently on paid leave and has plead “not guilty” in her first hearing.

And here we have our third entry in the 2011 teacher sex scandals category for this year.  Sadly I can tell you I am skipping a lot of the ones that I see simply due to disgust at times, there is certainly no slow down in the number of instances out there.

Alini Brito, one of the two teachers in the infamous James Madison High School lesbian scandal, is now suing to regain her job.

Back in Dec. 2009 I wrote up the story of Alini Brito and Cindy Mauro and how they had been discovered in a vacant classroom at James Madison High School by a janitor in what he described as an act of lesbian sex.

While both women denied the allegations, the school board found them guilty and let both of them go.

Normally this would be the end of the story, but it appears that Brito is suing the school for wrongful termination, and she’s demanding her job back.  The reason?  Mauro was doing nothing more than helping her with a diabetic attack.

WCBS and The New York Daily News have reported on the lawsuit filing, and it appears that the whole thing was a misunderstanding.  Brito had begun feeling ill during a school assembly, and Mauro offered her some candy that she had back in her classroom.  When the two got back to the room, Brito took to feeling worse, and asked to lay down on the floor.  She took off her sweater so that Mauro could place it under her head, and then her feet were placed up on a chair to help with her circulation.

It was sometime around this point when the janitor happened upon them and found Brito naked from the waist up and Mauro between her legs.

This has all been explained now by it all appearing to have only allegedly been a misunderstanding, and was nothing more than a case of one teacher helping another with a diabetic attack.

My issue with Brito, however, is two-fold.  I’ve known some diabetics in my life, and not one of them ever said to me, “I need to get these clothes off” (yes, perhaps a pillow, but still … eh) and neither did any of them say they needed to get their legs up for circulation.  True, everyone is different, but that still seems a tad odd to me.

Secondly, the school board had an investigation of the incident, and they found you both guilty.  I understand they aren’t a court of law, but there was obviously something to the charges for them to terminate you both.  Have you somehow miraculously just come up with new evidence that you somehow did not share with the school when it first mattered?  That’s … odd.

Again, nothing has been proven as of yet, and this is just a whole lot of allegations flying around, but something definitely does not make sense to me in all of this.

At least they didn’t involve any of the students if something really did happen between them.

An ex-Indiana teacher has been charged with two counts of felony child seduction involving a female student.

Mandy Jared, 33, was charged with two counts of child seduction, considered class D felonies, last week following allegations that were leveled against her last Dec.  Apparently a 17-year-old student told another teacher at Zionsville Community High School that she and Ms. Jared, the school’s art teacher, had engaged in sexual activity on four occasions, two of which happened in the school’s dark room.

The second teacher informed the school principal on Dec. 9^th, 2010 of the allegations, and Ms. Jared immediately resigned from the school where she had been teaching since 2002.

It is unknown why Ms. Jared was only charged with the two counts that happened on school property, when the reports indicate there were four separate incidents between her and the student.  Jared surrendered to the Boone County Jail on Tuesday, and is expected back in court on Feb. 22^nd to have the charges read against her.

And here we have our second entry in the 2011 teacher sex scandals category in as many months.  Sadly this isn’t an auspicious start to the year, and I’m sure there will be more of these as the year chugs along.