Florida Teacher Gets Hand Slap in Child Sex Case

(Kissimmee, Florida) Today, 32-year-old former teacher Sarah Elizabeth Joel appeared in Osceola Circuit Court for sentencing.

Judge Scott Polodna gave Joel two years of house arrest followed by eight years of probation. Joel will not see the inside of a jail. It's not known whether Joel will be required to register as a sex offender.

Neither the prosecution nor the victim's family were happy with the sentence.

"Somehow it's become OK for a female teacher to have sex with a child with no punishment, while a man would go to prison," Assistant State Attorney Amy Chandler said.

The victim's mother said she was upset that Joel isn't paying for what she did to her son.

Judge Polodna justified the sentence by stating that Joel was remorseful and the sexual incidents were isolated. The mathematical limit for multiple child sex incidents which Judge Polodna would rule as isolated was not disclosed.

I suspect that Judge Polodna would have treated a male teacher, committing the same crime, more harshly.


* * * * *
Florida Teacher and 8th-Grade Boy
[Previous 1/26/08 post]
(Osceola, County, Florida) A 31-year-old special education teacher at Narcoossee Community School, Sarah Elizabeth Joel, was arrested yesterday for allegedly engaging in sex with a 15-year-old eighth-grade male student last year.

Reportedly, a Harmony High School teacher alerted authorities that one of her current students was suspected of having sex with Joel, his former teacher.

During a tape-recorded interview, the student told an investigator that he and Joel stayed in touch after last school year and he became a friend of her family, the report states. When he called Joel to talk about his problems, Joel would pick him up and take him to her home.

"One thing led to another," the teen told investigators. He said the encounters took place at Joel's St. Cloud home during September, when he was 15.

Joel first told deputies during a sworn interview that they did not have sex, but later admitted to two encounters during Christmas break, when the former student was 16. She was arrested at school district headquarters in Kissimmee.

Joel has been charged with three felony counts of lewd and lascivious battery. She was booked into custody at the Osceola County Jail without bail.

Notably, Joel is married with two children.


[Update 9/13/08]

Joel pleaded guilty yesterday. Sentencing is scheduled for November 7th.