Arrested teacher's record 'spotless,' officials say

TAMPA - Another Bay Area teacher has been taken to jail, charged with sex crimes against a student.

Despite efforts to detect and prevent this behavior, authorities said this teacher had a spotless record, and students FOX 13 spoke to had good things to say about her.

Tammy Clinton, 39, is a 6th grade geography at Farnell Middle School. She was arrested and jailed Thursday on four sex counts, after investigators say she repeatedly forced herself on a 14-year-old boy.

They also say they made the arrest after the boy told them she was pressuring him to meet her off campus.

"You can't predict behavior", says Hillsborough County school board member Candy Olsen, who says they're doing all they can to stop this kind of illegal behavior.

"We do our very best. We do lots of interviews," Olsen said. "We do lots of checks and I think the fact that we are generally successful is reflected in how rare this is, but one is too many," she said.

Two years ago, the school board struggled to find some answers, but the best they could do was pressure staffers to report unusual behavior.

Yet Clinton had a spotless record, and was popular among students like Samantha Demircioglu, an 8th grader.

"I thought she was the nicest person in the world, she was so nice," Samantha said.

In fact, Clinton is the sixth female Hillsborough teacher arrested for sex in recent years, along with Cristina Butler, Jaymee Wallace, Stephanie Ragusa and Mary Jo Spack.

But it was Debra LaFave who put Hillsborough on the world map of scandalous teachers. LaFave avoided prison with a plea deal because the mother of her 14-year-old victim would not let him testify.

LaFave is often compared to Jaymee Wallace, a girl's basketball coach who admitted to sex with one of her players, but Wallace's victim did testify, and Wallace became the first of the Hillsborough Teachers to go to prison. She got three years, the rest got probation.

Legal experts say Clinton, when her case is called, will face a zero tolerance attitude from prosecutors, who these days are much less likely to bargain with teachers charged with sex crimes.