Posted on 03/22/2008 1:45:43 AM PDT by kingattax
TAMPA - Mary Jo Spack met two Freedom High School students March 14 and took them to a liquor store, police said Thursday.
Spack, an honors English teacher at Freedom, then drove the students, ages 17 and 18, to a Howard Johnson motel on Fowler Avenue where they drank alcohol together, an arrest report states.
"Those kids were texting some friends that they were going to have a party at this motel," police spokeswoman Laura McElroy said. Three other students joined them in the motel room, McElroy said.
The 17-year-old told police he had sex with Spack in the shower.
"The other students who were in the hotel room overheard the sex act in the bathroom," McElroy said.
Spack, 45, of Wesley Chapel, was arrested Thursday at Freedom High. She is charged with one count of unlawful sex with a minor and two counts of contributing to the delinquency of a minor.
A teacher heard a student talking about the incident earlier this week and reported it to Freedom's administration, Hillsborough County School District spokesman Steve Hegarty said.
Spack was not the students' teacher, police said.
Allegations 'Shocking Every Time'
She is the second Hillsborough County teacher within a week accused of having sex with a student. Middle school math teacher Stephanie Ragusa was arrested March 13 and accused of having sex with a 14-year-old at least three times from January to May 2007. Ragusa, 28, was released from jail Tuesday after posting $12,500 bail.
Spack was released from Orient Road Jail at 8:26 p.m. Thursday after posting $8,500 bail. A phone call to the Spacks' home was not returned Thursday night.
"It's still shocking every time," Hegarty said Thursday about the recent teacher arrests. "The schools are shocked. We're shocked."
Spack was suspended with pay Thursday, Hegarty said. She will be sent a letter from the school board informing her not to go to work. She also faces the possibility of being suspended without pay pending a vote by the school board, Hegarty said.
Spack was hired in 2000 to teach English, speech and drama at Chamberlain High School, according to her application to the school district.
"My philosophy of education has grown and matured into what is now a strong desire to create in my students the aspiration to become life-long learners," Spack wrote in her application.
She transferred to Freedom in 2004, Hegarty said. District officials will examine her personnel records today.
Students Surprised By Arrest
Students at Freedom told a reporter on Thursday they were surprised at Spack's arrest.
"I thought it was for something else," student Shaakier Johnson said. "I didn't think she was actually having sex with kids. I thought maybe she didn't pay her taxes."
Spack interned at Land O' Lakes High School in 2000 and was supervised by teacher Tanya Fuss, who said Thursday she only worked with Spack and did not know her well. Fuss said the arrests of Spack and Regusa were disturbing.
"I'm horrified to hear that yet another teacher is accused," Fuss said.
Spack was arrested by Pasco County sheriff's deputies in 1994 on a charge of driving with a suspended or revoked license, Florida Department of Law Enforcement records show. She pleaded no contest and paid $105 in court costs. Information about her arrest was included in her application to the school district.
Prior to her arrest Thursday, Spack had no other misdemeanor or felony criminal records in Pasco or Hillsborough counties, records show.
Spack graduated summa cum laude from the University of South Florida in May 2000 with a bachelor's degree in secondary English education, according to her resume. Before she was a teacher, Spack worked in hotels and restaurants in Texas, Tennessee and Florida, she wrote in her resume.
Reporter David Sommer, News Channel 8 reporter Lynn Carson and researcher Stephanie Pincus contributed to this report.
Another Teacher Facing Sex Charges...
with a face like that....no wonder drug use is up so much in high schools!!!!
MY EYES!
Guilty and Fugly too!!
A Democrat and NEA member??
I bet his friends were goofin' on him pretty bad after that.
yikes! brutal! Although the current gov of new york might see her as attractive.
The image of Ragusa on your post wouldn’t come up so I googled her name.
Strangely enough, one of the images that came up was an ABC news article on the Florida School District that employed four women accused of sex with students BEFORE the latest Spack on the district’s reputation.
Could it be something in the water down there or an Al Queda plot?
Go here for article with multiple pics:
http://www.abcnews.go.com/US/story?id=4453608&page=1
When I was 17, 45 seemed elderly.
You nailed it on the broad shoulders thing. Might have some gender confusion going on.
BTW What do you think of a woman with a huge fat derrière running America? This body type says to me...Brain blood vessels all clogged up. Incapable of complex thought but reptilian brain still functional and is good on revenge
I think fat granny types are great. But Hill is no granny just heavily weighted down
Guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.
Guilty
I know the crusaders here will continue with their self righteous crusade, but I still must point out that 17 & 18 years old is marrying age for many young men and in the very recent past it was a norm, all around the world. These young men are NOT children. She was not their first. She will not be their last. The young men are not traumatized. When they were done all they wanted was to do it again and maybe they did, and again. 17 & 18 year men are virile like that.
She should have her hand slapped in the palm with a pink slip and get no trial for crime. These 3 are guilty of fornication, which is a sin, not a crime.
Hang her.
She is the second Hillsborough County teacher within a week accused of having sex with a student. Middle school math teacher Stephanie Ragusa was arrested March 13 and accused of having sex with a 14-year-old at least three times from January to May 2007. Ragusa, 28, was released from jail Tuesday after posting $12,500 bail.
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