© AP Photo/The Salt Lake Tribune, Leah Hogsten, Pool, File FILE – In this Jan. 15, 2015, file photo, Brianne Altice, 35, middle, is taken into custody and ordered to stand trial in 2nd District Court, in Farmington…
BOUNTIFUL, Utah — A former high school teacher accused of having sexual relationships with three of her students took a plea deal Wednesday, crying as she accepted the agreement in court.
One of the boys was 16 and two were 17 when they were having sex with Brianne Altice, 35. One testified that he considered her to be his girlfriend during their yearlong sexual relationship.
But the boys were all minors, and Utah law also says a person cannot consent to sex if the other person is in a position of special trust. Altice, who taught high school English, pleaded guilty to three counts of forcible sexual abuse in exchange for prosecutors dropping 11 other counts, including several first-degree felonies.
School officials knew about Altice’s inappropriate behavior and didn’t do enough to protect the students, the boys and their parents say. In a lawsuit against the Davis School District, they say the running joke at the high school was, “Who is Ms. Altice sleeping with now?”
Davis School District spokesman Chris Williams said he would love to comment on the allegations but that the civil lawsuit precludes him from saying anything.
Prosecutor Susan Hunt said the three victims are on board with the plea deal, The Salt Lake Tribune reports.
Altice is scheduled to be sentenced on May 28. Each count carries a possible sentence of 1 to 15 years in prison.
Sweet baby Jesus. Is it just me, or does this seem like this is something that’s happening a LOT lately? It seems like at least once a week I can read online about another adult female school teacher who has been arrested for having sex with a teenage male student. It’s just crazy, man, I don’t get it.
And, no, not even an erotica/porn-lover like myself is going to make light of this. I’m not going to join in the choruse “Where were teachers like that when I was in school?!?” that you immediately see men saying online. This isn’t right. Male or female, this is an abuse of power (and trust). Even if the child likes it, adults are supposed to know better!
That’s the thing that really gets me about this stuff. What is going through the mind of these adults? Get someone your own age, for crying out loud (and it seems like half the women in these cases are married with children). Let me tell you, I have a coworker who’s daughter started working at our job at the end of last year. She’s 18. And she’s hot. Just my type, a short Mexican woman with long hair and HUGE breasts. Those first few weeks I had to fight the urge to stare whenever she walked by me. And she is legal. She’s an adult. But that doesn’t matter to me, I still felt like a dirty old perverted man. Funnily enough, the thing that knocked me back into my senses was when we took a picture together in February in an office party, and seeing us standing together we looked like father and daughter. That really made me see how stupid my thoughts were, so I got that out of my head.
But, like I said, she is a legal adult. If we both wanted to be together, we could. But I still felt uncomfortable at the thought. Now I imagine if I was teacher at her school, and she was underage? Forget it! I mean, I drive past 3 different high schools on my way to work every weekday morning, I see kids walking, and yeah some of those young teenager girls look good. Some have bodies like grown women. So I totally understand being tempted. But I don’t care how tempted I get, that is one line I would just NEVER cross. Especially if I were a teacher or in some other position of authority over these teens. It just can’t be worth risking losing your whole career and going to jail.
So I have no sympathy for women like this, and I believe that they should be treated just as harshly as male adult teachers are when they have sex with underage girls.
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