Stephanie Ragusa and the Latest Sex Scandal to Involve Teachers

Media Sensationalizes a "Trend" to Sell Papers

It seems like you can't turn on the television or even read the internet news these days without hearing about one young female teacher or another being charged for having a sexual relationship with one of their students. The latest addition to this trend is 28-year-old Stephanie Ragusa, a seventh-grade math teacher who formerly taught at Davidsen Middle School in Tampa, Florida.

According to FoxNEWS.com, Ragusa was arrested Thursday, accused of having a sexual relationship with a 14-year-old student at Davidsen Middle School, from October 2006 to May 2007. She has been charged with five counts of lewd and lascivious battery.

Unfortunately for Ragusa, whether the courts find her guilty or not, her career as a teacher is likely over. But Ragusa is hardly the first to go through such a situation, and will likely not be the last.

On April 4th of last year, oddculture.com reported the paid suspension of Merritt Island Physics teacher and cheerleading coach, Jennifer Leigh-Manuell after the school received an anonymous phone tip that the 25-year-old teacher was involved in a sexual relationship with one of her 17-year-old students.

And who can forget the most popular of the teacher sex scandal stories; that of Debra LaFave, the 24-year-old reading teacher, also from Florida, who was arrested in 2004 for allegedly having sex with a 14-year-old boy who was a student at the school where she taught.