Stephanie Ragusa is back in the news.

Since we last saw her, Ragusa had been out on bail after being arrested for allegedly having sex with two students in early 2007. The students were 14 and 15. She was initially released March 18, 2008 after posting bail, but was re-arrested April 15 when investigators found out about the second student.

She gets out on bail again. And what does she do? She goes right back to the home of one of her pet students and has sex with him again!

Life’s One Big Party

Officers discovered Ragusa and the now-16-year-old boy at his house about 12:20 p.m. Monday, the arrest affidavit states. Ragusa had gone to the teen’s house to discuss the criminal case but wound up in bed with him, police said. Detectives nabbed the woman as she was leaving and getting into her boyfriend’s truck. Ragusa remained behind bars Tuesday, charged with two counts of unlawful sexual activity with a minor.

Nick Hogan

Sitting in jail, Ragusa wrote a letter to the son of wrestler Hulk Hogan, Nick Bollea (also in jail), which was intercepted by Pinellas County sheriff’s deputies. Bollea, who was later given a copy of the letter, is currently serving an eight-month sentence on a charge of reckless driving with serious bodily injury.

Celebrity Kids - Ragusa’s Movin’ On Up

The letter states:

“I just want you to know that you are not alone, and for what it’s worth, I can sympathize with the dynamics of your case.”

“It’s not us, Nick, but something ‘off’ with society that our situations garner more attention and print than the president, the election or even an earthquake killing thousands. Keep your head up, and never lose sight of the light at the end of the tunnel. You have more people supporting and pulling for you than you will ever know. You remain in my prayers.”

Nick Bollea is 17 years old. He sits at the Pinellas County Jail in Largo, Florida, after the August 26, 2007 crash in Clearwater, caused by reckless driving, where his friend John Graziano, a former U.S. Marine, was left permanently brain-damaged.

Trainin’, Sayin Prayers, Eatin Vitamins
(Photograph Supplied by PacificCoastNews.com)

Source: Sun Times
Location: Morningside Elementary School, Port St. Lucie, Florida (where else?)

Kindergarten teacher Wendy Portillo has been reassigned after she allowed her students to oust a fellow 5-year-old from the classroom because of his disciplinary problems. Last week, Portillo held a vote in her classroom in which the students “voted out” 5-year-old Alex Barton, who is in the process of being tested for Asperger’s Disorder, a type of high-functioning autism.

After each classmate was allowed to say what they didn’t like about Alex the teacher said they were going to take a vote, Barton said. They said he was “disgusting” and “annoying,” Barton said. By a 14 to 2 margin, the students voted him out of the class.

Barton, who said she is considering legal action, said Alex began the testing process in February for an official diagnosis under the suggestion of Morningside Principal Marsha Cully. Alex has had disciplinary issues because of his disabilities, Barton said. The school and district has met with Barton and her son to create an individual education plan, she said. A veteran of 12 years of teaching, including nine at Morningside, Portillo has attended these meetings, she said.

Barton said after the vote, Alex’s teacher asked him how he felt. “He said, ‘I feel sad,’” she said. Alex left the classroom and spent the rest of the day in the nurse’s office, she said. Alex hasn’t been back to school since then, and Barton said he won’t be returning. He starts screaming when she brings him with her to drop off his sibling at school.

Poor Alex just got a lesson in American democracy. Somebody on the Sun Times web site named “jedijahendo” wrote this eye-opener:

On the side of the child, this is a horrible lesson in the lack of trust and compassion in the world, especially in our public school systems. “Cast out” by a majority vote because you’re different, and being too young to understand what happened or why will leave him cold, and unwilling to trust people around him for a very long time.

On the side of the teacher, this is a lesson in democracy and government to the children. He was being disruptive to their studies at a very critical age, where they learn the importance of school, and how to behave in such a setting. This is a learning experience for all involved.

Indeed! For this commenter just hit upon the true function of government schooling - to prep good little conforming citizens. Majority vote, mob rule. Might as well start the lesson early!

By the way, Wendy Portillo’s email is portillow@stlucie.k12.fl.us.

Another “Only In Florida” story, courtesy of Local 6 News:

A Pasco County substitute teacher named Jim Piculas has lost his job after being accused of wizardry. Piculas recently did a 30 second magic trick in front of a classroom at Rushe Middle School where a toothpick disappears and then reappears. He then got a call from the supervisor of teachers, saying he’d been accused of wizardry.

Rushe Middle School is located in Land O Lakes, which lies north of Tampa. I suppose they have Lakes there, where, presumably, witches are drowned. Because that’s the only way to kill a witch (or wizard). Folks around Pasco county don’t take to kindly to pagan black magic and supernatural goings on. Hell, I heard Jim Piculas even made a penny come out a poor boy’s ear. Sorcery!

Rumor has it Snape was not impressed.

More excitement in the tradition of other Florida Hot-For-Teacher celebrities like Janet Lea Hughes, Jennifer Leigh-Manuell, and Ruen Marie Beane:

Ex-Davidsen Middle Teacher Stephanie Ragusa, 28, has been jailed in a student sex case.

Source TBO:

A 15-year-old boy (name withheld) told police that a sexual relationship developed between him and math teacher Stephanie Marie Ragusa when he was 14, and she was teaching at Davidsen Middle, the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office said. Late Thursday afternoon, deputies arrested Ragusa, 28, at her Lake Bella Vista Drive home in Tampa and charged her with five counts of lewd and lascivious battery.

She is accused of having sex at least five times with the teen from Oct. 1, 2006, to May 4. One of the encounters took place while the teen should have been in an after-school class, and others occurred in Ragusa’s car and apartment, sheriff’s spokeswoman Debbie Carter said.

Ragusa started working for the school district in 2006 at Madison Middle School in South Tampa, Hegarty said. She voluntarily transferred midyear to Davidsen in Town ‘N Country but it is unclear why, he said. Most recently Ragusa has been working at Martinez Middle School in Lutz. The school’s Web site lists her as a seventh-grade math teacher.

Another Florida teacher busted for teaching something other than the assigned curriculum.

Update On Stephanie Ragusa

10-Jun-08
Re-arrested and Letters to Nick Hogan

Allenna Ward: The White Witch!

Source: AP:

A former middle school teacher was sent to prison for six years Tuesday for having sexual encounters with five teenage boys. Authorities said Allenna Ward, 24, met 14- and 15-year-old boys at the school where she taught as well as at a motel, a park and behind a restaurant.

Police began investigating last year after school officials found a note believed to have been written by Ward to one of the boys. Some of the victims were students at Bell Street Middle School in Clinton, where Ward taught. She was fired about a year ago.

Ward pleaded guilty in September to three counts of second-degree criminal sexual conduct with a minor and three lewd acts on a minor.

Forensic psychiatrist Donna Schwartz-Watts said Ward is not a pedophile, but rather a childlike victim suffering from personality disorders and a repressed childhood. Schwartz-Watts said the minister’s daughter lived a sheltered life but really was a “free spirit” who never got a chance to break away from her family.