Tampabay.com
MARCH 25, 2008

Sex, teachers and videotape

TAMPA -- The Hillsborough School Board is not usually a magnet for TV cameras, but no fewer than three packed into a tiny classroom today and suffered through two hours of talk about district goals.

They were waiting for five minutes at the end of meeting, when the discussion turned to what Board member Candy Olson summed up as "sexy teachers, or teachers and sex."

A recent one-two punch -- the arrests of teachers at Freedom High and Davidsen Middle within two weeks of each other -- has Board members using words like epidemic. Four Hillsborough teachers have been arrested in the last five months for inappropriate sexual contact with students. Three of those teachers were women.

Now Board members are calling for a special meeting to discuss what to do the spate of teachers having have sex with students. The meeting is April 15 from 1 to 2 p.m. Special guests include Hillsborough State Attorney Mark Ober and Public Defender Julianne Holt.

Until then, here's a primer on names of Hillsborough female teachers with sex charges:

March 20, 2008: Mary Jo Spack, a 45-year-old honors English teacher, accused of having sex with a 17-year-old boy after buying liquor and bringing him to a motel.

March 13, 2008: Stephanie Ragusa, a 28-year-old math teacher, arrested and accused of having sex with a 14-year-old boy.

Oct. 23, 2007: Christina Butler, a 33-year-old special education teacher at Middleton High School in Tampa, arrested, accused of having sex up to a dozen times with a 16-year-old boy.

Oct. 8, 2007: Former Wharton High School teacher and coach Jaymee Wallace pleaded guilty to having a sexual relationship with a student who played on her girls basketball team.

Former Greco Middle School teacher Debra Lafave was sentenced to three years of house arrest and seven years of probation after pleading guilty in 2005 to having sex with a 14-year-old boy.

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Gradebook features education articles and insights on schools in Florida, focusing on Tampa Bay area schools. What's the latest from the Florida Department of Education? How is the FCAT being used to compare Florida schools? What's going in on in Tampa Bay schools? Get an insider's view from the Times education reporting team.

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Rebecca Catalanello covers Pinellas County schools. E-mail her: rcatalanello@tampabay.com.

Tony Marrero covers Hernando County schools. E-mail him: tmarrero@tampabay.com.

Marlene Sokol covers Hillsborough County schools. E-mail her: sokol@tampabay.com.

Ron Matus covers Pinellas County schools. E-mail him: matus@tampabay.com.

Jeffrey S. Solochek covers Pasco County schools. E-mail him: solochek@tampabay.com.

Kim Wilmath covers the University of South Florida. E-mail her: kwilmath@tampabay.com.

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