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Tuesday December 4, 2007

A disgraced teacher who was put under house arrest for having sex with a 14-year-old pupil has been arrested again for violating the terms of her probation.

Former pin-up girl Debra Lafave, 25, was arrested on Wednesday after she allegedly talked to a 17-year-old colleague on several occasions.

According to documents released by the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office in Tampa, Florida, LaFave is said to have spoken to the teenage girl at the restaurant where they both work about “non-work related issues such as family problems, friends, high school, personal life, boyfriend issues and sexual issues”.

LaFave originally got probation for seven years and was put under house arrest for three years. Part of her court-ordered punishment was an agreement that she would not have any contact with minors.

In a television interview last September [2006], she finally broke her silence on the 2004 case, saying then that she “crossed the line that never should have been crossed”.

Lafave, from Tampa, Florida, who was accused of having sex with Matthew Merchant, pleaded guilty to lewd and lascivious battery on the boy, who was 16-years-old at the time of her prosecution.

The former English teacher said on US television last year: “At that period in my life, I didn’t feel like an adult. I was crashing fast.”

Lafave, who was married at the time, said that an early, abusive relationship with an older boy forever tainted her view of sex.

The former Greco Middle School teacher was arrested in June 2004 in front of the student’s home. Two months later her husband Owen filed for divorce.

Lafave has said in the past that she suffers from bipolar illness.