TEACH ADMITS SEX IN HS

Judith Esparza, a 24 year old high school Spanish teacher, is charged with four counts of rape and 11 counts of sodomy and endangering the welfare of a child.  She repeatedly had sex with at least two of her male students.  She had sex with one of the boys, who was 16, about once a month during the 1998-99 school year, always at noon in her office at the Marta Valle HS on the Lower East Side.  A second boy was allegedly seduced less frequently, but she also took that one, who was also 16, to the La Semanna Hotel at 25 West 24th Street on June 30, 1999.  Her bail was set at $10,000 cash or bond.  Her husband posted her bail yesterday and blasted her accusers as out to get my wife.  Michael Shwartz said, The whole story isn't true.  The kids say she did it, and they arrest her just like that.  He acknowledged that his wife has invited students to their home.  She was too nice with these kids, and that's what got her in trouble.  The mother of one female student complained to Esparza's principal of the teacher's habit of throwing sleepovers for male and female students.  The teacher pleaded guilty yesterday admitting to engaging in sex with the one 16 year old student at a hotel and in deviant sexual intercourse with another at the High School.  As part of a deal with prosecutors, the teacher will get five years probation.  Because she admitted to felony charges, her days as a teacher should be done.

(New York)