JACKSONVILLE, Fla -- An Atlantic Coast High School teacher remains behind bars, accused of sleeping with a student from her school. Danielle Reed, 23, faces multiple sexual battery charges.
"We're talking about a terrible loss of innocence for people," said Psychologist Dr. Lynn Wadelton, reacting to another arrest.
She says it's a troubling trend Duval County has been seeing more of lately.
"There are violations of trust and errors in judgment that hurt everybody."
Reed marks the fourth in a year's time in the county. Michael Worrell, 61, was arrested in September and accused of sexually assaulting three kids. Christopher Bacca was fired from Windy Hill Elementary. He was accused of molesting a student and arrested in July. And Leonard Hoffman pleaded guilty to similar charges in March.
But one of Florida's most publicized cases came in 2004. Tampa teacher Debra Lafave admitted to sleeping with a 14-year-old student.
Dr Wadelton says in reality, a male teacher facing these charges is often more highly criticized.
"They certainly often get a harder reaction from the public and the court system because they are seen as predators and very sexual beings, and women are not thought of as the sexual beings and they do want to be seen as attractive and wanted by someone."
As for why cases like these seem to be happening more frequently, Dr. Wadelton says the boundaries that used to exist in society have been blurred, making it harder to know right from wrong.
"I tell my patients frequently play the tape to the end. Don't just think about the first step or the second step see it all the way through to how would you like what you're doing right now to be on the 6 o'clock news."
Dr. Wadelton says there's also a very important reason why it's illegal for adults to have consensual sex with kids under 18. She says the portion of their brain associated with judgment thinking doesn't fully develop until they are 18-20 years old.
