Jul 22, 2008 5:45 pm US/Eastern
L.I. Teacher Arrested Again For Sex With Student
MINEOLA, N.Y. (CBS) ―
She was told to stay away, but police say she couldn't.
A Long Island teacher who lost her job after admitting she had sex with a 16-year-old boy has been arrested again. Prosecutors say Heather Kennedy ignored a judge's order and continued sleeping with the boy.
Kennedy was originally forced to quit her job as a math teacher at Wantagh High School after pleading guilty to sexual misconduct with her teenage student. But acting on a tip, the Nassau County District Attorney's office began surveillance of the teacher at a Long Island Rail Road station where they say they discovered her in the back seat of a car, again having sex with the 16-year-old student.
Kennedy was re-arrested and this time charged with five counts of statutory rape, endangering a minor, and criminal contempt of a court order to stay away from the teenage boy.
She had already been suspended, and was working from home in Massapequa. Her lawyers said it was a one-time romance and she pleaded guilty, was fired and vowed never to see the boy again.
But the District Attorney Kathleen Rice said those promises were thrown out the window when the teacher lured and seduced the boy again and again in her car, home, and school parking lot.
"Children are vulnerable. This is a 25-year-old woman who was having a sexual relationship with a teenage high school student- just outrageous," Rice said.
In court, a judge was told the sex was consensual and that the teacher and her alleged victim care deeply for one another.
Kennedy's lawyers say that she is not guilty of rape. She is supported by her family who are trying to raise the $100,000 bond she was ordered held on.
Kennedy faces up to four years in prison for each of the five rape charges.
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