Confessions of a Recovering Pharisee

[CBS 4]

A teacher at a South Florida Catholic School is accused of having sex with a 15-year-old boy. Police say she admitted to the relationship, saying she and the student had been sexually active since March 2009.

Maria Guzman Hernandez, 32, is a sixth-grade teacher at Our Lady of Charity in Hialeah. She was charged with sexual battery on a teenager just hours after she and the boy returned from a trip to Disney World over the weekend.  

The boy’s mother reportedly told police investigators and the Department of Children and Families that she knew about the relationship and approved of it.  The mother said she thought Hernandez was a ‘nice person’ and was a good influence on her son.  Police say the teen’s mother is also now under investigation and could face charges.

Read story here.

[From me]

What a twisted world we live in.  It is bad enough when teachers prey upon children but when parents approve–how sad.  Then there is Mary Kay Letourneau the woman who made headlines years ago for having an affair with a student and later marrying him.  She and her now husband had a Hot for Teacher party at a local bar in Seattle. If an adult wants to ruin their lives living in sin that is one thing.  But it is a tragedy when they bring down children.

What do you think?

Is it just my imagination or does the state of Florida have more cases of inappropriate teacher-student relationships than anywhere else?  It seems that there is at least one story every week coming out of Florida about teachers (usually female) having sexual relations with underage students.  What is in the water there.  Check out these stories:

1. 60 Year Old Teacher Accused of Sex with Student
2. Mom Of Minor In Teacher-Student Sex Case Speaks Out
3. End of line for teacher
4. Police Say 16-Year-Old Had Sex With Teacher On Multiple Occasions

Those are all headlines from just the last few months.  But if you go to the website bad teachers they have 77 stories about Florida teachers alone.  But my present state has 40 stories.  

This isn’t just about Florida.  This is a problem all over the country.  As a former public school teacher/coach, I’m disgusted but not surprised.  Children spend more time at school with their teachers than they do with their own family.  So why don’t school systems do a better job of doing background checks?  Why do we hear so many stories like these almost daily?  Was it always like this and we just didn’t hear about it or is something else going on?  What would 30, 40, 50 and yes 60 year old women see in 13-16 year old boys?  Better safeguards need to be put in place.

What do you think?