Florida Becomes Ground Zero for Student/Teacher Sex Scandals

Does it seem like it to anyone else that the State of Florida has more than its share of female teacher sex scandals? Well, according to this report in the Orlando Sentinel, we were not imagining things as more than 150 teachers in the Sunshine State have been arrested in the past three years! Here's more from this outstanding article:

At least 150 Florida teachers have been disciplined in the past three years after being accused of sexual misconduct with students, an Orlando Sentinel review has found.

Some of the most severe cases resulted in arrests and criminal convictions for offenses such as secretly watching a boy change and shower, tricking elementary-school girls into touching a man's genitals and having sex with minor students. But the Sentinel's case-by-case review of teacher-discipline records from the Florida Department of Education found that a lot of the alleged misconduct did not rise to the criminal level.

Still, parents would be alarmed.

Among those cases are a former Apopka High teacher accused of flashing a teenage student with whom she was having an affair; a Port Orange teacher who sent text messages to a boy, calling him "cutie" and "sexie"; a ninth-grade teacher in Tampa who asked a student about the color of her nipples; and an Orlando coach accused of using e-mail and instant messages to tell a 13-year-old girl he loved her and wanted their relationship to grow beyond friendship.

Those 150 cases don't include the dozens of educators who have been suspended or lost their teaching certificates since 2006 for molesting nonstudents, downloading porn at school, having sex in public and trying to pick up prostitutes. Many of the cases occurred in the South Florida and Tampa Bay areas. In Central Florida, 34 teachers were disciplined in the three-year period, including 12 from Orange County, 11 from Volusia, four from Polk, three from Seminole, three from Brevard and one in Lake.

Scholars, mental-health experts, police and others aren't sure whether more teachers these days are committing such acts. Little research has been done on the issue. They say it's likely students are simply reporting bad behavior more often. One trend is certain, however: The number of disciplinary cases involving sexual misdeeds is rising in Florida -- among female educators in particular.