A Bangor, PA school teacher has waived her right to a preliminary hearing and is heading to trial where she is accused of having sexual relations with multiple underage students at Bangor Area High School.

Rachel Farrell – who taught under her maiden name of Rachel Werner – resigned this past December from the Bangor Area High School in Pennsylvania after an investigation began surrounding allegations that she had a prolonged relationship with one student, and encounters with at least three more.  Upon being confronted with the allegations, she confessed to district administrators and a resource officer two relations with two 17-year-old students, and later confirmed these confessions with a police detective.

Farrell is said to have had a prolonged relationship with one student from August 2010 to January 2011, following her having gotten married just prior to this in June 2010.  Upon questioning the student, now 18 and graduated, he confirmed that he and Farrell had come friends in class and then communicated via Facebook and text messages. He went on to state that the two met multiple times to engage in sexual intercourse, including at least two visits at a Ramada Inn in Tannersville that did have records of Farrell renting a room there on two occasions in 2010.

Currently the 18-year-old has agreed to testify against Farrell, but none of the other students involved have yet agreed to do so.

Currently the charges stand at three counts of corruption of minors stemming from an encounter in a Walmart parking lot in Lower Nazareth Township and the two visits that were confirmed to the Ramada Inn.

As opposed to other cases were I always have to say “alleged,” since Farrell has confessed to at least some of the accounts, I have to wonder what drives a newly married woman to sleep with not one, but multiple students?  Even if you remove the fact she had just gotten married, sleeping with one student is bad enough, but to do it repeatedly?

The human brain is something that always mystifies me, and when it acts in a way such as this, my disbelief  grows even deeper.

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.

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.

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.

A Chicago-area teacher has been accused of having sex with a 16-year-old student.

Ashley Blumenshine, 27, a physical education teacher at Plainfield North High School in Illinois, was discovered on Jan. 5th  in a car with a 16-year-old male student in the parking lot of a Kohls store.  Police noticed two suspicious cars sitting at the far end of the parking lot behind the store, and upon pulling up they discovered one car was empty while the other had two occupants; Ms. Blumenshine was in the driver’s seat of the second car while the unidentified student was in the back seat.  Upon questioning, both admitted to having engaged in sexual intercourse before the arrival of the police.  Blumenshine was arrested on a charge of criminal sexual abuse, and released the following day on $75,000 bond with an order to have no unsupervised contact with anyone under the age of 18.

Since the time of the incident, Ms. Blumenshine has tendered her resignation to the 202 consolidated school district, which they have accepted, and the school where she has taught since 2006 is also moving to have her teaching certificate revoked.

On Jan. 26th she appeared in court to enter her plea of not guilty to the charge of aggravated criminal sexual abuse.  She will have a pretrial hearing on March 2nd.

Sadly, we’re sure this will be the first of many teacher sex scandals this year.  I’ve tried to cut back some on how many of these I write up just because they’re so depressing when you really think about it.  I looked it up, and my 2010 teacher sex scandals had only 11 posts as opposed to the 2009 teacher sex scandals having 24. This isn’t to say there were less incidents, I simply tried to pay less attention to them.

Here’s hoping 2011 will have fewer of these stories to come across my news feeds, but I somehow doubt that will happen.

It’s sad that it has come to this, but I guess it’s a sign of the times.

According to ReadWriteWeb, the Virginia Board of Education will vote this weke on establishing guidelines for teacher contact with students outside of the classroom.  The policy, if adopted, will cover text messaging, social networking and online game contact between teachers and students, and essentially ban all of this.  This is in response to the 120 actions the state has taken against education employees since 2000 for sexual misconduct.

The rules will include:

• Under most circumstances, Teachers and other school board employees must restrict one-on-one electronic communications with individual students to accounts, systems and platforms provided by or accessible to the school division.
• Teachers and other employees may not use personal wireless communications devices to “text” students and are prohibited from interacting one-on-one with students through personal online social-networking sites. Teachers and other school board employees must decline or disregard invitations from students to interact privately through texting and personal social-networking sites.
• If, because of an urgent or emergency circumstance, a teacher or other school board employee uses a personal communications device or account to contact an individual student, the date, time, and nature of the contact must be reported in writing to his or her supervisor on the next school day.
• Teachers and other school board employees may not knowingly engage in online gaming unrelated to instruction with students.
• School board policy on electronic communications with students also applies to teachers and other employees of virtual school programs and other vendors providing instructional services to students.

Apparently some teachers are arguing against it, saying that electronic communication shouldn’t be singled out, and that teachers should conduct themselves professionally at all times.

Well, yes, they should, but the unfortunate truth of the matter is, they don’t.  Electronic communication is being singled out because it is what comes up time and time again in cases such as this, and that is just the sad truth of the matter.

Unfortunately this is where we are in this day and age.  As you have seen me write time and time again about teacher sex scandals, the problem seems to be on the rise, so it’s about time someone took a preemptive strike against these sorts of activities from teachers.  Yes, it is unfortunate that contact between faculty and students has to be treated this way, but it is what it is.

If teachers topped getting involved with their students, than we wouldn’t need these rules, now would we?