Here at The Daily Caller, there was a belief that the national epidemic of teacher-student sex romps would slow down and perhaps even stop as the dog days of summer vacation set in.
That view turned out to be hopelessly naïve, however. To see why, look no further than the case of Laura Elizabeth Whitehurst, a teacher at Citrus Valley High School in Redlands, California.
On June 18, Whitehurst gave birth to a baby allegedly fathered by an unidentified teenage student with whom she had a yearlong love affair, reports NBC 4 Southern California.
Police arrested the 28-year-old single mother this week after an investigation and a subsequent interview with her at her apartment in Redlands.
The frisky 10th-grade English teacher (and one-time assistant girls soccer coach) allegedly initiated the relationship last summer during an undisclosed school-related function.
“One thing led to another, and he ended up at her residence, and it’s been ongoing for approximately one year now,” explained a Redlands Police spokesman, notes KABC.
The teen’s mother eventually found out about the illicit romance and informed school officials, according to the Redlands Daily Facts.
The student, who is now 17, graduated from high school this spring.
School officials say Whitehurst made no attempt to hide her pregnancy. At the same time, she did not advertise the identity of the father.
It’s not clear who cared for the newborn while Whitehurst was under arrest. The new mother was released on the same night after posting $25,000 bail. The charge against her is unlawful sexual intercourse with a minor.
Whitehurst has been placed on leave in the wake of her arrest. It’s not clear if she still receiving her salary.
A former student who is now a grown man has since come forward to claim that he, too, shared a passionate dalliance with Whitehurst in 2007 when she was a teacher at another local high school.
“Her and I had a physical, sexual relationship,” 23-year-old Michael Cooper told KABC. “I didn’t know what to think at first. It was kind of a shock, but being a hormonal 17-year-old, I saw an opportunity and I kind of just went with it.”
Cooper also said he had previously thought he was the only student whom Whitehurst had allegedly courted.
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