EDITOR’S NOTE: This is part one of a two-part series of stories about a nationwide trend of allegations of school employees accused of having sexual contact with students.



She looked like the ultimate femme fatale.

Blond, blue-eyed, baby-talking Debra Lafave — a former Florida middle school teacher — admitted to having sex with a 14-year-old male student.

In Nov. 23, 2005, the 25-year-old former remedial reading teacher pleaded guilty to two counts of lewd and lascivious behavior in a last-minute effort to avoid prison. She also had to register as a sex offender.

Parents from coast to coast heard the story and worried about their sons. But the high-profile case is just one of the cases of school employees having sexual contact with students that occur each year nationwide.

The mother of an Elkmont football player who says her son had sexual contact with a school counselor’s assistant says she warned the woman to stay away from her son nine months ago when she first became suspicious of their relationship.

She also told the school principal about her suspicions.

“Cheryl” – not her real name – said former Elkmont counselor’s assistant Jeana Boyd showed inappropriate conduct toward her son as far back as February. Cheryl’s name is not being released by The News Courier because doing so would identify one of the underage boys involved in sexual allegations.

Her 17-year-old son and two other 17-year-old football players, whose names also have not been released because they are juveniles, told school officials last week they had sexual contact with Boyd. She vehemently denied any sexual contact with any students, but resigned for “personal” reasons. Because she is no longer a school employee, Limestone County school officials will not further investigate the allegations. The allegations have not been proven or disproved.

The fact that teenagers have sex is well established: Roughly half of all 15- to 19-year-olds have had intercourse, and more than half have had other types of sexual contact, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Sex between teen-agers and school employees is another story. It incenses parents, even when teens reach the age of consent, which is 16 in Alabama. Many view it as an abuse of power and a form of sexual abuse, because teen-agers are so easily influenced.

A recent U.S. Department of Education report says nearly 7 percent of students have experienced unwanted sexual contact from an educator.

Cheryl said it was her husband who first noticed something seemed out of line with their son’s relationship with Boyd.

“I was working 80 hours a week, and I was not home as much as I usually am,” Cheryl said. “She (Mrs. Boyd) came by the house and she picked him up at the house and took him to the high school. My husband told me about it. It was too much, and it started raising suspicion. Then someone told me that at a basketball game one night, she was putting her head all over my son’s shoulder. Little things kept trickling in that made me have suspicions.”

She said she called Elkmont High School Principal Mickey Glass, and he talked to the boy.

“(Mrs. Boyd) found out and went in and talked to the principal at that time and tried to cover everything up,” Cheryl said. “My son was uncomfortable telling me the truth at the time. I didn’t have anything to say to her after that. “

She said Mrs. Boyd then telephoned her over the summer.

“She asked what my problem was,” Cheryl said. “I told her I did not appreciate the way she was conducting herself around my son, and the first thing out of her mouth was, ‘I have not had sex with your son,’ ” Cheryl recalled.

“I told her, ‘I didn’t say that you did,’ ”

She said she warned Mrs. Boyd to avoid her son.

“I told her she better leave him alone and that she better stay away from him. I said I don’t want my son around you,” Cheryl recalled. “She said, ‘I’m a friend to all of these boys. They can’t tell their mothers the things they can tell me.’ I told her you are not a counselor and you are the last person who needs to counsel with these boys and give them any advice.”



Unraveling

Tina McAnally of Elkmont believes it was her questioning of her own son that triggered the three football players to divulge their alleged sexual contact with Mrs. Boyd.

On Nov. 9, five boys, including McAnally’s son, rolled the Boyds’ house with toilet paper and placed a sign in the yard that read, “Walk-ins Welcome.”

“When I heard about it, I was angry,” McAnally said. “I asked my son why he did it and why they put an ugly sign like that in her yard. I thought it was mean. And he said, ‘Mama, it’s worse than that.’ ”

She said her son told her that Mrs. Boyd had “been with” some other boys on the football team. He was not one of them.

The boys involved in the house rolling were suspended from school for a day as punishment, McAnally said.

Cheryl also said the incident with the rolling and the sign brought out the allegations of sexual contact.

“When they put the sign in her yard, two of the mothers kept asking why that particular sign,” Cheryl said. The mothers just kept on them. So, the boys finally started saying, so all the names started coming out.”

She believes most teen-age boys would have difficulty saying no to sexual contact.

“You might have a few who say no, but it’s like dangling a carrot in front of a rabbit,” Cheryl said.

McAnally sees the boys as victims.

“Their hormones are raging, she also knows that,” she said.

Read more about what these parents experienced and what school officials can do about allegations of sexual contact with students in Tuesday’s edition of The News Courier.