10 teacher-student sex scandals that made headlines

Text: Denise Ngo

Yesterday, a 32-year-old teacher from a top school in Singapore pleaded guilty to having sex with a 15-year-old male student. According to court documents, the two began their relationship after the boy got into a boating accident during an overseas school trip where the teacher served as a chaperone.

Deputy Public Prosecutor Sharmila Sripathy Shanaz said during the trial that the teacher, a married mother of two, “actively pursued her student”.

In December 2011, she gave the boy oral sex at his consent. At the time, the boy was a virgin.  The two of them continued to have consensual intercourse until February 2012, when the student’s parents filed a complaint to the school about the relationship. The teacher resigned soon afterward.  She will be sentenced on October 29. If convicted, she could face up to 10 years of jail time for having sex with a minor.

While this case has gripped our nation over the past few days, teacher-student relationships are reported practically every month in other countries, especially the United States, where the media enjoys hyping up the role of pretty female teachers as seductresses, and their underage male prey as innocent teenagers living the dream.

Click through our gallery to read about other teachers who landed in hot water for fooling around with their students.