Atlanta, GA 1/12/2008 7:39:20 AM
News / Education

Teachers Using Cells, Text Messages To Seek Sexual Contact with Students

Beth Ann Chester, a 26-year old physical education teacher in Moon Township, Pa., is accused of having sex with a student. Cell phone phone calls and text messages reportedly played a big role in the sexual abuse.

Moon Township police say Chester admitted to having sex with a 14-year-old student in the school's parking lot. Detectives also found nude pictures of Chester on the teen's cell phone along with text messages.

Chester faces 14 charges, including three counts of sexual abuse of a child and involuntary deviate sexual intercourse.

Several cases of teachers using cell phones to illicit sexual content with students have been prevalent over the last few years.

In 2003, Kelly Dalecki, 26, had sex with a 14-year old student in St. Augustine, Fla.. Dalecki was a teacher at the same school where his mother taught, and she socialized with his parents. Dalecki used her cell phone, e-mail messages and text messages to speak to the student in a sexual manner.

She also bought and gave him Mike's Hard Lemonade, cranberry juice with vodka, condoms and marijuana.

Dalecki pleaded no contest to lewd and lascivious battery and was sentenced to 364 days in jail.

In a recent case, Kelsey Peterson, a 25-year-old Nebraska teacher accused of having sex with a 13-year-old former student. She faces federal charges for allegedly kidnapping the teen and taking him to Mexico to have sex.

Peterson has pleaded not guilty to the federal charges due in large part because the student was an illegal immigrant without a certified birth certificate.

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