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It all seems so terribly familiar.

A trusted, even respected or beloved teacher is accused of having a sexual relationship with a student.

What used to shock us, but is now much too commonplace, is that the teacher is a woman.

Their names become tabloid headlines: Mary K. Letourneau, Debra Lafave, Pamela Diehl-Moore and others.

And now two more cases, both local.

Jennifer Leigh Rice, a 31-year-old former Tacoma teacher, was charged with having sex with a 10-year-old boy who had been in her fourth-grade class. The boy’s father says she lavished the boy with attention until she was told not to come to their house anymore.

So she abducted the boy, police say, drove him to a highway rest stop outside Ellensburg and had sex with him. After her arrest in early August, Rice said she’d had sex with the boy four or five times, including once when she sneaked into his house as his parents slept.

Earlier this year, former Tenino math teacher Dawn Welter, 38, was charged with second-degree sexual misconduct after spending the night at a motel with a 16-year-old female student. Her lawyer explained her relationship with the student as “horseplay that became sexual.”

The decadelong wave of sexual offenses committed by women — teachers in particular have exposed a cultural double standard: The public is more willing to accept the female abuser’s claim that she had a “relationship” with the victim. And in cases in which the male is a teenager, the sexual abuse is more likely to be dismissed as a rite of passage. The questionable, yet overriding assumption, is that women predators are somehow different from men.

“Men are demonized, women are diagnosed. Men are beasts, but women are troubled or mentally ill,” said media scholar Matthew Felling in an interview with Fox News. In fact, accounts of women sexual offenders are often more titillating than harsh. Felling calls the news coverage of young, attractive teachers involved with their students “part crime drama, part Penthouse letter.”

About 25 percent of women and up to 17 percent of men say they experienced sexual abuse as children, ranging from seeing someone exposing themselves to intercourse. Boys are less likely to report abuse.

Despite the troubling news accounts, the National Education Association says schools are still among the safest places for children to be. The number of cases of sexual abuse by teachers, male and female, is less than 10 percent of all sex crimes against minors.

The current awareness of women predators began with Mary K. Letourneau, a 34-year-old elementary-school teacher and a married mother of four, who in 1996 began a sexual relationship with a 12-year-old former student, Vili Fualaau. Letourneau eventually had two children with him and served more than seven years in prison. She resumed contact with Fualaau, by then an adult, after she was released. While a male offender might have been publicly shunned, Letourneau’s 2005 wedding to Fualaau was covered by “Entertainment Tonight.”

Female predators’ crimes are often attributed to marital problems, depression, loneliness, immaturity or self-esteem issues. Letourneau was reported to have “a loveless marriage” and was diagnosed with bipolar disorder.

Spiritual “relationships”

Not only do we look at female offenders differently, so do the offenders themselves. Women predators are more likely to see the abuse as a romantic relationship. Letourneau told CNN’s Larry King that she and Fualaau had a “deep spiritual oneness” before they were ever sexual, and that she did not consider herself a sexual predator.

Dr. Leigh Baker, a clinical psychologist in Colorado, interviewed hundreds of male and female predators for her book “Protecting Your Children From Sexual Predators.” All were incarcerated at the time, and their stories help form her theory that there are four types of predators: inadequate, narcissistic, anti-social and pedophile.

An inadequate adult (and predator) has trouble forming attachments with other adults and is most comfortable with children, she says. A narcissist loves him- or herself to the detriment of others; someone who’s anti-social doesn’t abide by society’s rules; and a pedophile is sexually aroused by children.

While some women are pedophiles and some men do profess their love for the children they sexually abuse, women are more likely to “couch it as a relationship,” according to Baker. Men are more likely to be serial pedophiles; women seek that “deep spiritual oneness” that Letourneau says she found.

The traits women predators exhibit — seeing themselves as a victim, low self-esteem, a sense of inadequacy, needing to be the center of attention, putting their own need for a connection before common sense — probably place most women predators into two of Baker’s four categories.

“My suspicion is if you took a large enough number of female predators, they would fall into all four types. But, we know women are less anti-social than men, and there are fewer female pedophiles, so I think most women are narcissistic or inadequate types of predators.”

There are signs of the inadequate, the narcissist and the anti-social predator in Letourneau. She formed an inappropriate bond with a 12-year old, ignoring society’s mores and the well-being of her own four children.

While a mental illness may produce hypersexuality, impulsiveness and poor decision-making, such a diagnosis for a sexual predator is rare, according to Baker. They are more likely to have a personality disorder (such as a anti-social, or narcissistic) or to have been sexually abused themselves.

The “Mrs. Robinson Syndrome”

To watch NBC’s “To Catch A Predator” you’d think all predators are men. The series uses decoys on the Internet to lure men hoping to hook up with underage teens. Robert Weiss, executive director and founder of the Sexual Recovery Institute in Los Angeles, who provided his expertise in one of the episodes, says sexual compulsions on the Internet are male-dominated.

But female predators are beginning to use the Internet — not in an anonymous way to find children but to stay in close touch with those they are involved with. Rice, the former Tacoma teacher, communicated online often with the 10-year-old she had sex with, according to court records.

Then there is the ultimate double standard: The wink wink, nudge nudge, of boys getting their sexual initiation from grown women.

“Society sees it as they got ‘lucky’ ” to receive a sexual initiation from a woman, according to Dr. Keith Kaufman, chairman of the department of psychology at Portland State University. “But their brain maturation isn’t complete. Boys aren’t in a position to give consent to a sexual relationship. Girls see it as abusive much more quickly. Boys won’t want to see themselves as a victim.”

There is a prevailing sense that boys are not harmed by sexual liaisons with older women. It’s called the “Mrs. Robinson Syndrome,” after the character in the 1967 film “The Graduate.” But Benjamin, Mrs. Robinson’s target, wasn’t a child; he was in his 20s, had just graduated from college and was contemplating that career in plastics.

“We tend to see the female teacher-male student relationship as less abusive and less harmful psychologically,” according to Dr. Susan G. Kornstein, a psychiatrist and director of the Institute for Women’s Health and the Mood Disorders Institute at Virginia Commonwealth University. “But in fact, a sexual relationship between a female teacher and a male student can be just as harmful and can have both short- and long-term consequences on the child’s emotional stability and psychological and sexual development.”

Boys who have sex with grown women are anything but “lucky.” “It is always abuse,” says Dr. Kaufman.

Rebecca Morris has been a broadcast and print journalist for 33 years. She teaches journalism at Bellevue Community College.

Here is a list of female sex offenders  who have been accused, or convicted, of assaulting students, often receiving little or no jail time as a result.

Adrianne Hockett: Accused of having sex with a 16-year-old special-needs student in a Houston apartment she rented for the get-togethers. The boy has testified the pair would “have sex, drink beer and smoke weed.”

Amber Jennings, 31: Though Jennings was initially charged with having sex with a 16-year-old, the counts against the Sturbridge, Mass., woman were reduced to a single charge of disseminating harmful materials to a minor. She reportedly admitted e-mailing naked photos of herself to a former student. She received no jail time, only two years of probation after pleading guilty.

Amber Marshall, 23: Northwest Indiana woman allegedly had sexual contact, including intercourse, with several students at Hebron High School, and turned herself into authorities, telling police she knew what she did was illegal.

Amira Sa’Di, 30: Clayton County, Ga., woman remarked she didn’t think her relationship was inappropriate based on her Internet research, learning the Peach State’s age of consent is 16.

Amy Bramhall, 33: Education technician was arrested in January 2006 after a 15-year-old boy at the alternative education school in Warren, Maine, told police he had an ongoing sexual relationship with her. Flirting allegedly eventually led to an estimated 200 sexual encounters. In December 2006, she received three and half years in prison, with all but one year suspended, and four years probation.

Amy Gail Lilley, 36: Inverness, Fla., woman and softball coach at Lecanto High School charged with a lesbian relationship with a 15-year-old girl. She received no prison time, being sentenced to two years of house arrest and eight more years of probation.

Amy McElhenny
Amy McElhenney, 25: Charged with having a sexual relationship with an 18-year-old male student, the 25-year-old Hebron High School Spanish teacher and former Miss Texas contestant will not be serving any jail time after a Denton County, Texas, grand jury refused to issue an indictment. While the age of consent in Texas is 17 years, a state law bans sexual relationships between educators and students even if the student is of legal age and the relationship is consensual. She could have faced 20 years in prison if indicted and convicted.

Angela Comer
Angela Comer, 26: Middle-school teacher from Tompkinsville, Ky., fled with her alleged lover, her 14-year-old male student, before being tracked down in Mexico where she reportedly planned to marry the boy. She was indicted for illegal sex acts with a minor and returned to Kentucky. Charges include felony custodial interference, two counts of third-degree sodomy and four counts of unlawful transaction with a minor relating to sexual acts.

Angela Stellwag

Angela Stellwag, 24: Delran, N.J., woman accused of having sex in her apartment with a 14-year-old boy she met in school. She was charged with sexual assault for activity that allegedly took place in August 2004. She pleaded not guilty in August 2006.

Becci Hill
Becci Hill, 31: Martinsville, Ind., counselor at Sanders School in Wayne Township arrested in 2006 for for sexual activity with a 15-year-old autistic boy. Prosecutors say what started as a mentor relationship turned into a sexual liaison that lasted a year. Hill would allegedly park her car down the street from the boy’s home, and he would climb out his window to meet her in the middle of the night. In January 2007, Hill pleaded guilty to sexual misconduct with a minor, and was given a two-year prison sentence and forced to register as a sex offender.

Beth Raymond, 31: Private-school employee from Pownal, Maine, charged with risk of injury to a minor and second-degree sexual assault of a juvenile male at Eagle Hill School in Greenwich, Conn. In July 2006, she was sentenced to 18 months prison.

Bethany Sherrill, 24: Daughter-in-law of school-board president charged with molesting a 15-year-old middle-school student. Reports state Sherill allegedly had oral sex with the boy and sent him coded text messages. She resigned her position at Jefferson Elementary School in Farmington, Mo., and eventually received 90 days in jail and two years probation, and was forced to register as a sex offender.

Brandy Lynn Gonzales
Brandy Lynn Gonzales, 27: The Houston-area teacher and her husband were arrested in December 2006 for sexually assaulting students at an elementary school two years earlier. Prosecutors allege that Gonzales met a student at a local movie theater, where she performed oral sex on the boy as well as another student at the theater. Husband Johnny Gonzales is also charged with having performed sex acts with one teen. Prosecutors told the judge they have sufficient evidence to file further charges.

Cameo Patch
Cameo Patch, 29: Substitute teacher at Tooele High School in Tooele, Utah, arrested for allegedly performing oral sex on a 17-year-old male student. The sexual activity was allegedly consensual, and reportedly took place off school grounds after the pair had exchanged phone numbers in a restaurant. In November 2006, Patch was sentenced to no jail time, despite comments from the judge that a man would have likely gone to prison.

Carol Flannigan
Carol Flannigan, 50: Boca Raton, Fla., music teacher reportedly slept with 11-year-old former student, and also had a simultaneous sexual relationship with the boy’s father. In a deposition, the boy’s father said he had the same sort of sexual relationship with Flannigan that ex-President Bill Clinton had with Monica Lewinsky. In February 2006, Flannigan was sentenced to five years prison as part of a plea deal.

Carrie McCandless
Carrie McCandless, 29: The former Colorado social-studies teacher, who also happens to be married to the principal, was charged in November 2006 with having had sexual contact with a 17-year-old male student during an overnight school camping trip. The instructor, who also coaches cheerleading, could be sentenced to up to 12 years in prison for sexual assault on a child by a person in a position of trust and contributing to the delinquency of a minor.

Cathy Heminghaus
Cathy Heminghaus, 46: Special-education teacher from Ferguson, Mo., charged with statutory sodomy involving at least three of her students at Ferguson Middle School. She reportedly told friends she had performed oral sex on the children on several occasions.

Celeste Emerick, 32: Police in Huber Heights, Ohio, say the Wayne High School teacher hosted a party where students were shown pornography. Prosecutors charged her with one count of sexual battery, a felony in Ohio.

Christina Gallagher, 26: Jersey City, N.J., woman received no jail time, but was ordered to pay more than $1,000 in fines, sentenced to a lifetime registration as a convicted sex offender and ordered to attend therapy for having sex with a 17-year-old student in late 2004. The former Rahway High School instructor was banned from teaching and seeing the student with whom she had sex.

Christine Duda, 39: Teacher at the Normandy Alternative School in St. Louis County, Mo., allegedly took a 16-year-old hearing-impaired male student to her home for sex in December 2005. She was charged with two counts of felony statutory rape and fired by the school district.

Christine Scarlett, 36: English teacher at Strongsville High School in Ohio began a sexual relationship with the 17-year-old captain of the football team, Steven Bradigan, in November 2002 and eventually gave birth to Bradigan’s son. Scarlett was fired from her teaching job, but insists nothing improper happened during the time she was Bradigan’s teacher. She was never charged with any criminal wrongdoing.

Darcie Esson
Darcie Esson, 32: Parker, Colo., English teacher at Elizabeth High School was arrested in December 2006 for allegedly having sex with a 17-year-old football player the day after her divorce was finalized. According to the arrest affidavit, Esson and the teen had sex on the floor of her hotel room while her two children, ages 4 and 8, and their 17-year-old babysitter slept on beds in the same room. Esson was charged with sexual assault on a child by a person in a position of trust, a Class IV felony.

Deanna Bobo, 37: Special-education teacher at Raymond E. Wells Junior High School in Greenwood, Ark., allegedly had sex twice in 2005 with a 14-year-old boy in his own bed while his parents were not home. She denied the charge, but was convicted in September 2006 of two counts of first-degree sexual assault and sentenced to 12 years in prison.

Deborah Reeder, 45: Substitute teacher from Coral Springs, Fla., arrested in December 2006, charged with having sex at least four times with a 17-year-old boy who was a friend of one of her own three children. The victim told police they had sex multiple times in her car, her bed, on the floor of her bedroom and in the master bedroom shower.

Debra LaFave, 25: Tampa, Fla., area teacher received no jail time despite having sex with her 14-year-old male student in a classroom and her Hillsborough County home. In another county, Marion, she was accused of having sex with the boy in an SUV. LaFave claimed at a March 2006 news conference she had a bipolar disorder. The boy’s father said LaFave should have received prison time in her plea deal, noting, “It’s a horrible, ugly thing that she’s done.”

Diane DeMartini-Scully, 45: Mattituck, N.Y., woman was the school psychologist at East Hampton Middle School on Long Island when she was accused of having sex with the 16-year-old boyfriend of her own 13-year-old daughter. She allegedly had intercourse and oral sex with the boy on a number of occasions in May 2005 in her home and car. She was arrested after allegedly secretly visiting her young paramour at his new home in North Carolina.

Donna Carr Galloway, 33: Married mother of two found naked in a car with a 17-year-old student.

Elisa Kawasaki, 25: Biology teacher from Fresno, Calif., area, pleaded no contest to sex with a teen boy, and prosecutors dropped four other counts.

Elizabeth Miklosovic, 36: Grand Rapids, Mich., teacher at South Haven’s Baseline Middle School pleaded no contest to sexually assaulting a 14-year-old female student she “married” in a pagan ritual in June 2004. Miklosovic is also accused of touching the girl’s genitals while camping in public parks. She told the judge before sentencing, “The entire ordeal has been blown totally out of proportion for something that was innocent, kind and nurturing in nature.” She was sentenced to five to 25 years.

Elizabeth Stow, 26: Tulare Western High School teacher from Fresno, Calif., area convicted of having sex with three of her students was sentenced to nine years, but the judge suspended that sentence and gave her one year, followed by five years of probation. She was also ordered to register as a sex offender.

Ellen Garfield, 43: Former student at Solomon Schecter School in Newton, Mass., said his music teacher took him into an empty classroom where she worked, partially disrobed, and coaxed him into having sex with her in 1998. Garfield was acquitted of all charges in September 2005.

Emily Morris, 28: Teacher at Leeds High School in St. Clair County, Ala., faced a possible 20-year sentence, but received one year in jail for having consensual sex with a 15-year-old student.

Erica Rutters, 29: Teacher at Oxford Christian Academy in New Oxford, Pa., allegedly wrote erotic messages to a 16-year-old student and had sexual intercourse with him four times in her apartment. She pleaded guilty to corruption of a minor, and received no jail time, just three years of probation in March 2006.

Franca and Antonia Munoz-Juvera, 26: These twin sisters – both teachers – were arrested in Southern California in December 2006 in connection with alleged lewd acts with an underage female student. Only Franca was charged with “unlawful contact” – Antonia was charged with being aware of the incident and failing to report it as required under California law. An 18-year-old female roommate was also arrested because she “facilitated the crime.”

Georgianne Harrell, 24: Teacher at Holley Elementary School in Sylvester, Ga., charged with performing oral sex on a 9-year-old boy in April 2005, allowing students to gaze down her blouse and slashing her wrists with glass in front of her students. Though she originally pleaded not guilty, she changed her plea to guilty just before trial, and was sentenced to 25 years in prison for aggravated child molestation.

Gwen Cardozo, 33: Teacher at Wasson High School in Colorado Springs, Colo., accused of having sex with a 17-year-old male student. Police charged her with sexual assault on a child by one in a position of trust, and Cardozo resigned her position in March 2005. She pleaded guilty in July 2005 and received a deferred sentence, meaning no jail time if she remains trouble-free for four years.

Heather Lea Burroughs, 23: Substitute teacher at Pahokee Middle-Senior High in Pahokee, Fla., arrested Jan. 22, 2007, for allegedly performing a sex act on a student in an empty classroom during school hours. Palm Beach County district officials did not release the student’s name, age or gender, but arrest records indicate the student was between 12 and 18. If convicted of the first-degree felony of sexual assault, Burroughs could face up to 30 years in prison and a $10,000 fine.

Heather Ingram, 30: Mathematics, science and business teacher at Chatelech Secondary School in Sechelt, British Columbia, had sex with a 17-year-old student. The relationship cost Ingram her job and reportedly led to the breakup of her 12-year common-law marriage to a man four years her senior.

Jacquelyn Faith Garrison, 19: Substitute teacher at South Central High School in Winterville, N.C., was indicted in January 2006 on charges she was having an improper relationship with a 15-year-old student. The case involves some 50 phone calls and text messages exchanged between Garrison and the boy, who reportedly became uncomfortable when things of a sexual nature came up.

Janelle Marie Bird, 24: Accused of having a two-year affair with a 15-year-old student from East Hill Christian School, in Pensacola, Fla. Declaring her love for the boy, she was charged with two counts of lewd and lascivious battery and two counts of unlawful sexual activity with a minor. Though Bird could have received 30 years upon conviction, she was sentenced in 2006 to two years in state prison.

Jaymee Wallace, 28: Basketball coach in Tampa, Fla., charged with having an 18-month lesbian relationship with a student. Authorities say the student, who was 15 when she met Wallace, voluntarily had sex with the coach more than 50 times, in a parking lot at Busch Gardens and often at Wallace’s own apartment while a fellow classmate was in an adjacent room. According to the police report, the sexual relationship reportedly began in early 2003, after the student received a note from Wallace saying she “found her attractive and wanted to know if she felt the same way.”

Joan Marie Sladky, 28: Redwood City, Calif., woman sentenced to six months in county jail for having sex with a 16-year-old student after pleading no contest to four counts of unlawful sexual intercourse, oral copulation and penetration with a foreign object. The Spanish teacher’s relationship with the boy spanned six months, as she reportedly had sex with him once at his home and three times at her residence, which was on the property of the private Baptist church and school where she taught.

Julia Lund, 28: Language teacher at Chaska High School in Minnesota, arrested in December 2006, charged with third-degree sexual assault for allegedly performing oral sex on a 17-year-old male student. The victim told police he first noticed Lund staring at him in the school hallway, before she asked him to contact her. Lund allegedly told the boy her husband was away and she was lonely.

Katherine Tew, 30: Married English teacher from Greenville, N.C., arrested for having sex with a 17-year-old boy. She taught at South Central High School in Winterville, N.C., and was convicted of taking indecent liberties with a child, but found not guilty of the more serious sex charge. She was not given prison time, and lost her teaching license for at least two years.

Kathy White, 39: Teacher at Lumberton High School in Lumberton, Texas, charged with having sex with a 17-year-old student. The victim, Michael Ferguson, alleges: “She just started grabbing me and hormones were on and it just happened.” Ferguson provided KBTV-TV with an e-mail allegedly sent by White, in which the teacher told him, “I get these cravings for YOU and that’s not NORMAL! If I had it my way, I’d do you once a week just because it’s good.”

Kelly Lynn Dalecki, 26: Elementary-school teacher from St. Augustine, Fla., pleaded no contest to charges she had sex with a 13-year-old boy in 2003. The boy’s parents reportedly found more than 50 sexually explicit e-mails and pornographic pictures allegedly sent by Dalecki on his computer. Dalecki was sentenced to nearly a year in prison.

Kimberly Lynch, 37: Macedon, N.Y., woman was a teacher’s aide at Palmyra-Macedon High School who admitted having a sexual affair with a 16-year-old male student, including in school halls, in a car and at the boy’s home in February 2004. The married mother of three reportedly detailed the tryst in love letters the local newspaper said included discussion about having a baby together.

Kristen Margrif, 27: Mayville, Mich., teacher accused of having sex with a 16-year-old male student in her car or at his summer workplace in June and July 2005. She was given a one-year delayed sentence in June 2006 on three felony counts of second-degree criminal sexual conduct with a student, meaning she’ll only have to serve probation if she remains trouble-free for a year.

Kristi Dance Oakes, 32: Teacher allegedly had sex with a 16-year-old boy who was in her biology class the previous year. Oakes resigned from her post at Seymour High School in Sevierville, Tenn., and reportedly lost her home and even the job she took at a grocery store after resigning from the school system because of the charges. In July 2006, she pleaded guilty and was sentenced to six months in jail.

Lakina Stutts, 40: School-bus driver admitted to cops she had sex with a 14-year-old student in her home and in a car outside the boy’s home.

Laura-Anne Brownlee, 26: Former music mistress at a top private school in Belfast, N. Ireland, was given a six-month suspended sentence on charges of indecently assaulting a 15-year-old boy.

Laura Lynn Findlay, 30: Band teacher at Ricker Middle School in Buena Vista Township, Mich., charged with having sex with at least 5 students, one as young as 14. She was sentenced in August 2006 to at least seven and as much as 25 years in prison.

Leslie Baird, 42: Teacher at Tooele High School in Tooele, Utah, arrested in 2006 for allegedly having sex with two male students, ages 17 and 18. The mother of the 17-year-old boy said her son’s grades dropped from straight As to barely passing in the wake of the activity, and he no longer participates in sports. In January 2007, Baird was sentenced to undergo a 90-day psychological evaluation at Utah State Prison after pleading guilty to a felony charge of forcible sexual abuse. Her judge was Mark Kouris, the same jurist who came under fire for giving Cameo Patch, another teacher at the same school, no jail time for performing oral sex on a 17-year-old male student.

Lynn Saunders, 38: A former basketball star at the College of Staten Island, the gym teacher at St. Paul’s School in New Brighton, N.Y., was arrested in March 2005 for allegedly molesting a 12-year-old girl whose family she had befriended. Saunders admitted to touching the girl’s breasts and genital area on several dates in February 2005. She received no jail time, only probation and registration as a sex offender. The family is now suing Saunders and the Archdiocese of New York, claiming the girl became suicidal and still suffers from “severe emotional shock, trauma, embarrassment, anxiety and other psychological injuries.”

Margaret De Barraicua, 30: Sacramento, Calif., area woman arrested in February 2005 after police found her having sex with a 16-year-old male student in her car while the woman’s toddler was strapped into a seat in the back. She pleaded guilty to four felony counts of statutory rape and in November 2005 was sentenced to a year in jail and five years formal probation.

Maria Saco, 28: Math teacher at Lincoln Middle School in Passaic, N.J., sentenced in 2005 to a year in jail for an intimate relationship with a teen student who was 14 when they first met. Saco reportedly gave the boy a key to her apartment.

Mary Kay Letourneau, 34: Des Moines, Wash., teacher did prison time after having sex with a sixth-grade student, Vili Fualaau, in 1996 and eventually had two children by him. She originally had Fualaau in her second-grade class at Shorewood Elementary School in Burien, Wash. The couple has since married.

Melinda Deluca, 29: Sign-language teacher at Copper Hills High School in West Jordan, Utah, was fired in December 2005 for allegedly having sexual intercourse twice with a 16-year-old male student she reportedly had been “grooming” for sexual activity. The case took a bizarre turn in the summer of 2006, when Deluca was found beaten and had to be airlifted to the hospital, claiming two teen boys attacked her as payback. In reality, she made up the claim in an apparent attempt to get sympathy. In January 2007, she was sentenced to 90 days in jail. The victim’ mother said she initially “hated [DeLuca] with every part of my being,” but later expressed forgiveness, saying “even though she’s hurt my family, I’ve grown to love her.”

Melissa Michelle Deel, 32: Bristol, Tenn., teacher at Virginia Middle School pleaded guilty to crossing the state line into Virginia to have oral sex with a 13-year-old male student in December 2004. As part of her plea agreement, Deel agreed never to profit from the crime, as well as have no contact with the boy and his family without court permission. She was sentenced in 2005 to a year and two months prison.

Michelle Kush, 29: Substitute teacher at Boone County High School in Florence, Ky., allegedly had sex with a 15-year-old boy several times during summer break. She was charged with two counts of rape and one sodomy count. In August 2006, Kush was sentenced to 60 days in jail, 30 days on house arrest and five years probation.

Nicola Prentice, 22: British woman from Sheffield, England, given a 12-month suspended jail sentence after she seduced a 16-year-old student and began a 19-month affair.