Israel’s Education Ministry has initiated disciplinary action against a female high school teacher who admitted to having relations with her teenage male student, but was never indicted.
Police and the prosecution service determined last year that they did not have enough evidence to indict the teacher. However, the Education Ministry initiated disciplinary proceedings against her that may result in her permanent dismissal and voiding of any state-recognized teaching certificate in her possession, Ynet reported Friday.
The teacher and the adolescent from a school in Israel’s south had the affair two years ago, when she was 28 and he was 16, Ynet reported Friday. Neither the school nor the teacher have been named in by the Israel media. The teacher had been the boy’s homeroom teacher two year prior to the affair.
Michael Buskila, the teacher’s lawyer, said she regrets the affair but insisted that she did not “violate disciplinary rules” because she was not his homeroom teacher at the time.
The disciplinary action revealed that police and prosecutors had text messages that suggested a romantic and sexual relationship between the teacher and the 10th grader, even though authorities cited the “absence of evidence” in deciding not to indict.
One message from the teacher to the student, who used to attend her class when he was in 8th grade, read: “If you end up having time come over before three, I’m in bed.”
According to the disciplinary committee reviewing action against the teacher, who was married at the time of her affair with the student, the two had “full relations.”
She also wrote: “I love you, my love knows no bounds,” and: “Nothing is worth ruining our relationship.” In another message, she wrote: “I’m in love with every part of you, each and every centimeter, actually.”
In 2013, a Haifa court convicted of sexual abuse charges a 50-year-old female teacher who admitted to having consensual relations with a 15-year-old female student.