Kathryn Murray and 7 Other Notorious Teacher Sex Scandals
Kathryn Murray was sentenced this week, but she's not the first to get caught.
Jan. 23, 2014— -- intro: Over the years, there have been dozens of cases of teachers accused of having a sexual relationship with one, or several, of their students, and many have landed in prison for it.
Kathryn Murray, 30, is a former middle school teacher from Houston, Texas, who was sentenced this week to a felony deferred adjudication and will serve one year in a county jail. She pleaded guilty to one case of improper relationship between educator and student and one count sexual assault of a child for her relationship with a former student. Murray also is required to surrender her teaching certificate and register as a sex offender for the rest of her life.
Murray, an English language support teacher who taught language arts at Spring Branch ISD, was accused of having a sexual relationship with then-15-year-old Jimmy Pallais from Costa Rica.
Prosecutors claimed that the sexual relationship began at the middle school in 2012, and that the couple also had sexual encounters at a hotel and at the boy's home while his parents were away. The relationship continued even after Murray was initially arrested and barred from seeing the teenager, they said.
Murray isn't the first female teacher caught having an inappropriate relationship with her students. Here are a few other examples.
quicklist: title: Brittni Collepsmedia: 17344878text: The Brittni Colleps trial was one of the most scandalous student-teacher affair stories in history.
The case against Colleps, a former Texas high school English teacher and a mother of three, was filled with graphic testimony and cellphone video that allegedly showed Colleps having group sex with four students in her home during April and May of 2011. The fifth student had a sexual encounter with Colleps on a separate occasion.
A jury convicted Colleps on 16 counts of having improper relationships with students in August 2012. Though the students with whom she had sex were all older than the minimum age of consent in Texas, state law prohibits any educator in a primary or secondary school from having sex with any enrolled student, no matter their age.
Colleps was sentenced to five years in jail.
Colleps told "20/20" in a 2012 jailhouse interview that the video -- taken by one of the students -- makes her a victim.
"I felt like I was victimized in that video, because I did not, I never gave my consent for it," Colleps said at the time.
Brittni Colleps on Sex Scandal: Students Were 'Legal, Consenting Adults'
quicklist: 2title: Stacy Schulermedia: 14831914text: Stacy Schuler, a former gym and health teacher, was accused with having sex with five former students, some of whom were football players, at a high school in suburban Cincinnati.
During her 2011 trial, Schuler's lawyers defended her actions with explanations ranging from her vegan diet, the use of antidepressants, blackouts from alcohol and even irritable bowel syndrome, claiming it rendered her unable to determine right from wrong. Several students even testified on her behalf.
Schuler was sentenced to four years in prison after a judge rejected her insanity defense and convicted her on 16 felony counts of sexual battery and three misdemeanor counts for the alcohol offenses.
quicklist: 3title: Debra Lafavemedia: 18308724text: Debra Lafave, a former Tampa, Fla., middle school teacher, was accused of having sex with a 14-year-old male student during a 2004 affair.
After being charged with having sex with the student in a Florida classroom and at her home, Lafave pleaded guilty to two counts of lewd and lascivious battery in 2005 as part of a plea agreement with Florida state prosecutors. The agreement required her to register as a sex offender and serve three years of house arrest but no prison time.
In November 2005, a Hillsborough County judge sentenced Lafave to three years of house arrest and seven years probation. Lafave also faced similar charges in Marion County, but those were eventually dropped.
quicklist: 4title: Pamela Rogersmedia: 21626133text: In February 2005, Pamela Rogers, a former Tennessee gym teacher, was arrested and charged with 15 counts of sexual battery by an authority figure and 13 counts of statutory rape for her relationship with a student at Centertown Elementary in McMinnville, Tenn., where she taught physical education.
A judge sentenced Rogers to serve nine months of an eight-year prison sentence and ordered her never to contact the boy again.
After serving about seven months, Rogers was released in February 2006 for good behavior. However, Rogers was then arrested twice for violating the terms of her probation by trying to get in touch with her victim -- the first time through her home page on MySpace.com and the second by sending him a graphic cell phone video of herself dancing suggestively.
In July 2006, a judge sent Rogers back to prison, giving her a seven-year sentence on charges that she sent explicit photos to a young teenager while on probation.
quicklist: 5title: Stephanie Ragusamedia: 11036552text: Stephanie Ragusa, a former math teacher at Davidsen Middle School in Tampa, Fla., pleaded guilty in April 2010 to three counts of lewd and lascivious battery involving a 14-year-old boy, and two counts of having unlawful sex with a minor involving a 16-year-old student. The assaults occurred in 2008.
Ragusa's alleged affair took place between January and May 2007 and included intercourse on at least three occasions and oral sex twice, according to the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office. The encounters took place in Ragusa's Tampa apartment and in the back seat of her Lexus, according to the sheriff's office.
The prosecution described Ragusa as a master manipulator who sexually preyed on the most vulnerable teenage boys. Both boys she abused came from broken homes.
The defense, however, said Ragusa was remorseful, a mentally disturbed woman with no prior criminal history, and a victim of traumatic experiences in her life. They asked for probation and house arrest.
Ragusa was sentenced to the maximum according to a plea deal, 10 years in prison followed by five years of sex offender probation.
quicklist: 6title: Kristen Sullivanmedia: 10458869text: Kristen Sullivan, a former Lauderhill Middle School computer teacher in Lauderhill, Fla., faced several charges after police said she carried out a nearly year-long consensual sexual relationship with a 14-year-old male student, allegedly having sex on her desk at school and even in a parked car outside the boy's home.
Sullivan was arrested and charged in April 2010 with two counts of sexual battery while being in a position of authority and one count of lewd or lascivious battery.
According to the Sun-Sentinel, Sullivan entered a no contest plea to aggravated child abuse charges in December 2011, and accepted a three-year prison sentence in exchange for not having to register as a sex offender.
quicklist: 7title: Mary Kay Letourneaumedia: 17315912text: In 1996, Mary Kay Letourneau made national headlines with the news that she was pregnant with the child of her then-13-year-old student, Vili Fualaau.
Letourneau, a former teacher in Seattle, pleaded guilty to child rape and went to prison, giving birth to a daughter while behind bars. She was paroled after six months, but within weeks was back in prison for ignoring a court order to stay away from Fualaau.
Letourneau got pregnant again and gave birth to Fualaau's second daughter in prison. At the time, Fualaau was 15 years old. Letourneau also has four older children with her ex-husband.
She was released in August 2004, and the couple married eight months later when Fualaau was 22.
Shortly after her 2004 release from prison, Letourneau sat down for an exclusive interview with Barbara Walters to discuss her relationship with Fualaau.
"Basically he said he was in love with me," Letourneau said at the time. "I said, 'Can you hold that for a very, very long time?'... I felt a very deep love for him."
