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A New Jersey high school teacher has been arrested for allegedly having a sexual relationship with a student, authorities said.
Jennalin Garcia-Calle, a 28-year-old algebra teacher at Plainfield High School, was arrested Thursday in Davie, Fla., and charged with second-degree sexual assault and fourth-degree child abuse.
According to prosecutors, Garcia-Calle began the relationship with the 16-year-old boy in December. Prosecutors allege that at least three sexual encounters occurred in a classroom inside the school.
"The boy is not at a stage in his life where he's able to make that type of legal and quite frankly mature enough decision," said Union County Prosecutor Theodore Romankow.
Authorities became aware of the alleged relationship after the student told a family member what had happened. Students at the high school said the boy also bragged about the relationship to classmates.
"They both knew what they were doing, they both knew they were wrong," said senior Imani Campbell.
Prosecutors said Garcia-Calle realized her relationship with the boy had been discovered, prompting her to check into a rehabilitation center in Florida, as well as send the boy messages asking him to erase certain evidence. U.S. marshalls traced those messages and arrested Garcia-Calle.
She is being held without bond in Florida, awaiting extradition to New Jersey.
The Plainfield Board of Education has placed Garcia-Calle on an administrative suspension.
Information on an attorney for Garcia-Calle was not immediately available.


What about the NJ Congressman being investigated for sex crimes with underage prostitutes. Wait.. he is a Democrat... there is no crime.
Seems the kid never complained. His mouth did him in.
I wouldn't say he was done in. Afterall, what's the downside for him. For those who would argue any variant of "he's scarred for life," I think that's rubbish. She, on the other hand, is done in.
We need to ban all pornagraphy or make venders register with yearly fee.
Kind a like banning all guns or tax the hell out of them because some people can't control themselves?
@Hrrmm that will work great. Just ask Al Capone or local 'street corner vendor', (ahem) for medicinal purposes.
In a society sold out to the notion that anything hoes what else could you expect? Totally disgusting.
"How is this happening?" Sex and shooting in schools , very laughable. Since the feds have successfully removed prayer and God in schools and replaced it with condoms and such , things will only get worse . Gun control or not , keep rejecting the beliefs of our nations founders and you deserve the results you get.
"God" was never IN the modern school system. Nor should he/she/it have been. If you want to teach your kids about the invisible-sky-man, go right ahead, but don't make it mandatory.
Yikes... I have to point out to all of the people - hypocrites, I dare say - who take the position of "it's OK for a female teacher to sleep with a boy, but it's not OK for a male teacher to sleep with a girl..." Isn't this about responsibility or lack thereof, not necessarily desires?
Let's put it more specfically. Mr.16 year old boy sleeps with hot teacher and brags about it to his friends, he's happy as a clam. Let's say this goes on for a few weeks... He starts to develop feelings, but Ms.Teacher decides he's just a good fling. First relationships are, ideally, not ones where there is an extremely non-level playing field from a standpoint of emotional maturity. 16 year old, for all his bragging, is left spurned by someone who is unlikely to look at him as a serious partner. But, that's just a bit of emotional damage, no biggie, right? Ok, I can see that.
Let's take it a big more extreme though. 16 year old boy sleeps with his teacher and she gets pregnant. Prior to being old enough to vote or have a drink or buy a lottery ticket, he now has a child on the way when he has no say whatsoever in whether he gets to keep said child. Yes, the teacher, the emotionally more mature person who should have been responsible enough to say yay or nay to this sexual relation, now has complete power to tie that irresponsible young man with the lifelong implications of having a child. Apart from emotional and paternal responsibilities, financial ones as well. A hormonally charged 16 year old boy now has a metaphorical albatross tied to his neck for life because some teacher said "Bob, could you stay after class for a few minutes?" and made it clear that she was willing to let him exercise those overcharged hormones. To me, that's a *huge* abuse of power, because once she gets knocked up, he no longer has any but he DOES have lifelong responsibility to that child. That is an abuse of position, power, and a lapse in responsibility any which way you cut it on the teacher's part.
This isn't 100 years or more ago where if a man did something stupid like this he might just leave the state and set up in a new city and essentially have a clean slate. A pregnant female teacher has all the power in what happens to the child, and as such, has all the power in saddling a young, irresponsible man with a responsibility that will affect him drastically for his whole life. However much he wants to brag, however much he smiles, are any of you hypocrites *really* going to try and tell me that a 16 year old boy just looking for a good time is really responsible enough to be put in that position, and that it's OK for a more mature authority figure to do so? And then in the same breath tell me that it's just evil for a male teacher to sleep with a perfectly willing female student, because she might get pregnant or something? Heck, at least in that situation, she gets to choose whether she wants to have the child or not, whether she gets to proceed through life as a parent out of highschool or not...
high school teachers and students cant have sexual relations? when did this happen?
(i cant believe how often we are hearing about this type of scenario)
I don't believe there is a victim here. The only problem with these teachers is that dealing with a guy at that age, you know he's not going to be mature enough to keep his damn mouth shut. That's why the risk from a female standpoint just doesn't make sense to me.
So the gist of what I'm getting from half these comments is that you would have absolutely no problem with your daughter and her teacher having a sexual relationship. Sure, maybe he's 45 and she's 16 but, after all, she is sexually aware by now so what's the big deal, right? Age is just a number. "Teacher" is just a job and a label. And 18 is just a technicality. I don't know what's more disturbing - hearing about all these teachers crossing the line or knowing that there seems to be a large number of people who see no problem with it. Glad I don't have kids.
As has been pointed out earlier, it is indeed a double standard. But it is a double standard that many men (and women) accept. Here are a couple other double standards related to gender. Many "boys" have later curfews (if any at all) than their sisters. Many boys are also allowed to have girls in their rooms while females in the same family can't.
@dreamofnyc... For me, it is not that I do not believe that it is the wrong thing to do. I totally believe that teachers should not sleep with their students. However, I just don't believe that it is criminal. I believe that 16 year olds very easily can consent to having sex. It's no different than saying 18 year olds can go serve in the military, shoot guns and kill people, but that same 18 can not legally drink. How does that make any sense at all? It doesn't. I think that she should definitely lose her job, but I do not think that she should go to jail.
And yes, I would say the same thing about girls. I think that it is ludricous to say there is nothing to be done to a 15 year old girl having sex with as many 15, 16 and 17 olds as she wants, but they will prosecute the one 18 or 19 year old that she sleeps with. That is not right at all. They both consented. I believe if they started having consequences for the 15 and 16 year olds consenting to having sex with adults, then I believe they would make better decisions. I also believe you would see less of this.
Wait until she's out of jail and the NJEA starts featuring her in their commercials.
For all the people spinning the article what if this was a 16yr old girl and the teacher was a man. How would you react then???
Just another predatory pedophile DemoKKKrat child rapist, enjoying the protection provided by the NEA union thugs.
People under the age of 18 are legally children.
Children are legally incapable of giving consent to sex.
Sex without consent is rape.
The rape of a child is child rape.
I was 14 and she was 16.
Who raped whom? Does that mean we both has non-consensual sex?
These "Harold and Maude" stories are disgusting.
And not a lot of mental health going on there...
lets see 'your president' start anew campaign. The penis should be outlawed. Some one with no morals may use it.... oh wait, wrong soap box.
I am very disappointed of some of the comments. I have 2 sons and I would destroy the teacher that would engage in sex with them while underage. Just because they have the equipment and would love to use it does not mean it is right. I talk to my 14 year old all the time about sex,. A 16 year old boy is not mentally or financially equipped to deal with the consequences of sex. The teacher is the adult. If the boy gets an STD or gets her pregnant is she going to pay for it, or will they look toward the parents? Do you all remember the teacher who became pregnant twice with an underage child and now he is a teen father. If you are not the solution, you are the problem. I want my children to finish high school, go to college, and be a productive citizen. Do you really think a 16 year old who is banging their teacher really has their priorities straight. We really give little boys too much credit. And so what women were married at 15. That's when women couldn't vote or get a job. This is 2013, and the life expectancy isn't 40.
That's because you're a woman. Your sons would do it, enjoy it, and not tell you about it until 25 years down the road at a family dinner as they reminisced about their hot teacher. They would not be scarred emotionally or mentally, and they would be happy to that day for the experience.
You are incapable of understanding, because you interpret the world through your vagina, just as we interpret the same world through our penis. I have no need or desire to understand the strange ways of your vagina, and you are incapable of understanding our penis, so stop trying.
I fully understand the male mind and the lack of its use because I am married to one. No one said they would not enjoy it. But there needs to be a person who thinks and clearly it was not the adult. I would never want to be a man, who has this big organ that gets in the way of rational thought. So what should I do, just condone my sons to screw anyone in sight that is willing without guiding their actions. I know I won't never know what they are doing. My son now thinks he knows a lot but he doesn't. All I am saying is my children are my responsibility until they move out. Isn't that what society wants a parent who takes responsibility for their child's upbringing. So if I was at work and I was horny and my coworker makes a pass at me, I should sleep with him because I am horny. Forget the problems it could bring to my job or my marriage for that matter. It's not interpreting the world through my vagina but with my brain. I am not going to compromise my job or marriage to get some. I have been so horny that the smell of cologne got me riled up, but I don't act on it.
geez, I'm glad you weren't my mom
As a 30 year old man, I'm entirely with Gingersnaps on this. A 16 year old boy likely doesn't understand the implications of potentially getting a woman pregnant, and what that can do to his life after that. It's bad when two inexperienced teens do it, but when one of the person is older and an authority figure, that person should have had the mental fortitude to tell that little boy "while I'm sure we'd both have fun and you'd brag about it to your friends and you'd have lots of frat-mentality people patting you on the back, you aren't ready to deal with being a father."
Sex can lead to pregnancy. As a man, when a woman becomes pregnant, you have zero choice in whether you become a father or not. For someone who isn't even out of highschool, it's usually not ideal to have that kind of responsibility put on your shoulders. At 30 I realize that if I get a woman knocked up, I may have to *drastically* change my life in order to live up to the responsibility of being a father - so I think carefully and make the decision about sex with some degree of care. Are you people really going to tell me that your average 16 year old is mature enough to consider these things? What's more, is it likely that older woman with a career is going to treat him as anything more than a fling? Talk about a terrible position to get trapped in because you're a hormonal teen and your teacher who should know better didn't...
Throw the book at her, if it happened. I don't buy the whole "it's only bad if it's a man sleeping with a teen girl" thing. If anything, I consider it worse when it's a female teacher sleeping with a male student, since in the event of pregnancy, she has the reigns, not the underaged, irresponsible teen who didn't think of the implications of what he was doing. At least with a girl she has options.
I'm just guessing that a woman who gets pregnant my a minor isn't going to be the one blabbing it to the cops for child support
Wizard, is the only responsibility you think of when you think of when you think of fatherhood that of child support?... Really??
And of top of that... You sure? Seems the prevailing opinion around here is "she didn't do anything wrong - he enjoyed it, I wish I was him." If that's a precedent that is legally set - and it seems many of you would be fine with that - what is to stop a woman in this 28 year old's position getting on the kid for child support as soon as he's 18?
Who said they didn't use protection. And women talk to their daughters all the time about birth control. And not now, but as your sons get older either you or your husband (you know, the human being you think doesn't have a brain) should be telling them about using condoms. Otherwise you are living in a fantasyland. Oh, and if you think having a vagina keeps you rational then your kids may be even smarter than you.
Where were these teachers when I was in school?!
For those who think there is equivalence between genders (likely a woman), there is not. Boys listen to songs like "Hot for Teacher" and wish that would happen to them. Every last one of us had sexual fantasies about our teachers, even the not-so-hot ones. Girls simply cannot empathize here, so get over it. A boy who has sex with a teacher will remember that fondly for the rest of his life. Neither your understanding nor sympathy are required.
What freakin ever. There was this cute student aid who worked at my high school. All the girls would be in his face everyday. I wonder how many of them fantasized about him. Just because it is not socially acceptable for a young girl to have sexual thoughts and wants doesn't mean it doesn't happen.
Your point is a complete non sequitur, Ginger, and you don't even realize it. You try to equate your experiences, or feel that because you're "married to one" you know men -- you don't, and you never will. Girls, in general, do not "fantasize" about jumping a guy to have raunchy, non-committal, entirely superficial sex with him. They dream about relationships, marrying Prince Charming, finding "The One," and giving themselves to someone -- again, talking about girls, not cougars.
Boys and men, if there is a difference, daydream about having sex with any and every attractive female they see out of the corner of their eye, including your husband. He may love you and be happily wed to you, but he still thinks about having sex with multiple women at any given time. It's entirely unemotional, and he (we) can separate our penises from love, though we love our penises. YOUR husband has these thoughts -- Every. Single. Day. -- in his head, as does every man. He will never (ever) openly admit this to you, but it is true. We can have sex with a woman and never think about her again (unless she is either remarkably good or remarkably bad).
Quite simply, you can't handle the truth. And your sons are every bit of what I just typed, regardless of your wishful thinking.
I doubt there's a 10 percent of sixteen y/o boys that wouldn't transfer to her class in a moment.
When did we become so prude......
Well, where she comes from, the age of consent is 13 years old.
Maybe she should go back there.
Actually doug, she is one ugly teacher, you should see my sixth grade teacher mis aladly, she was ten time better looking than her.
There is no difference in the sexes where the law is concerned, or at least shouldn't be. Justice is blind to race, color, sexual orientation, sex, and religion... or at least it's meant to be. Who cares is a person is one day over 18? You have to draw the line SOMEwhere. All this about how lucky this boy is, or how stupid he was by talking about the affair blows my mind... this is the kind of crap that destroys equality. The boy is a child legally, and that's all that matters. If the situation was reversed, we'd throw the book at the male teacher and you all know it. Throw the book at her.
Hi Johnny, here's some extra credit work for you to complete "lickity split". ha ha ha ho ha ahem....
At least, she's not gay.
I would toss her pico de gallo
Did he pass Algebra?