Teachers Charged with Molesting Students Form Educational Group
By Phil Maggitti

Mary Kay Letourneau and Vili Fualaau, the poster couple of the North American Teacher Student Love Association.

ORLANDO, Fla. – Debra Lafave, Linda R. Nef, and Valynne Bowers, all of whom have been accused of having sex with their students, held a press conference here yesterday to announce the formation of the North American Teacher Student Love Association (NATSLA), a group dedicated to legitimizing “valid, caring relationships” between teachers and their students.

“We offer students the kind of hands-on educational experience they cannot get through mainstream educational channels,” said Debra Lafave, president-elect of NATSLA. “A lot of teachers give lip service to personalized instruction, but we give personalized instruction in lip service.”

Ms. Lavafe, a former Tampa, Florida, middle school reading teacher, pled guilty nearly five years ago to having tantric sex with a fourteen-year-old male student in a moving vehicle while listening to a Sting CD.

NATSLA will hold its first national conference this summer from June 21 through 23 in Orlando. Keyhole speaker at the event is Mary Kay Letourneau, whose address is entitled “Leave No Child’s Behind.”

Four years ago Ms. Letourneau married Vili Fualaau, a former student whom she had begun dating in 1996, when he was twelve years old and she was thirty-four. She eventually spent nearly eight years in jail for ignoring a court order to stay away from Mr. Fualaau, by whom she has two children.

Also scheduled to speak at the conference are Ms. Nef and Ms. Bowers, who have been accused of sexually molesting the same 13-year-old student at the junior high school where they taught in Salt Lake City, Utah. Ms. Nef and Ms. Bowers will present a paper on the team-teaching approach to teacher-student love.

"Get your motor runnin' . . ."

The newly formed executive committee of NATSLA will hold its first meeting during the conference. The committee is expected to take up a contentious topic —whether to extend formal membership in NATSLA to middle school teachers and students.

“I am opposed to that idea,” said former New York state Catholic high school teacher Sandra Beth Geisel.

Ms. Geisel finished a close second to Debra Lafave in Nearly Legal magazine's first annual Teacher I'd Most Want to Have Sex With in the Back of a Ford Bronco contest more than three years ago. The former Christian Brothers Academy writing instructor said she finds the prospect of teacher-student love with a sixth grade student disgusting.

“We have to draw the line somewhere, and I say we draw it at the seventh grade—that’s the bottom line for me,” declared Ms. Geisel. “I urge my fellow teacher-student love members to ask themselves what Jesus would want them to do.”

The executive committee also will discuss whether to establish a home schooling division within NATSLA and whether to give the go ahead to a gay-and-lesbian branch as well. Finally the committee will decide whether to award school custodial and secretarial staff members full or associate membership in NATSLA.

At home with the Letourneau-Fualaau family.

A number of former students who enjoyed a special relationship with their teachers are scheduled to take part in a round table discussion of the effects of teacher student love on students. One participant, Benjamin Braddock of Westport, Connecticut, dated his guidance counselor for three years.

“The afternoons I spent with Mrs. Robinson in the back of her SUV while my cousin drove us around Westport were among the most meaningful of my youth,” said Mr. Braddock.

“She gave me confidence because what I did with her in the back of that SUV is something other students only dream of.”

Ms. Lafave acknowledged that NATSLA faces an uphill struggle for acceptance. The North American Priest Student Love Association lasted only two-and-a-half years before going bankrupt.