Debra LaFave, Former Teacher Sex Scandal Interview
Category: Education, Her Diary, Lifestyle, Personality, Relationship, Sexual Life
Debra LaFave, a beautiful blonde former Tampa Middle School teacher, once again became headline news by appearing on NBC’s Dateline with Matt Lauer speaking out about her illegal relationship with her middle school student. After being convicted of having sex with the 14-year-old boy, the 25-year old LaFave received a cushy plea deal in Florida of just three years of house arrest and 7 years of probation. She could have gotten 30 years in state prison.
She said in television interview that she was deeply troubled at the time and “crossed a line that never should have been crossed”. She added: “At that period in my life, I didn’t feel like an adult. I was crashing fast.” LaFave said that an early, abusive relationship with an older boy forever tainted her view of sex.
Debra LaFave, who captured national headlines in 2004 for having sex with student at the Temple Terrace school where she was a reading teacher, also acknowledges that her victim might have a hard time trusting women one day. ” I’m sure he has to be living with the guilt of quote, unquote, ratting me,” she added.
Matt Lauer: Weren’t you scared to death he would tell someone?
Debra LaFave: Obviously, not, ’cause I did it again.
Matt Lauer: And again.
Debra LaFave: And again.
Debra LaFave: I kind of developed this idea, that it was my role’ in order to make a guy-boy happy, I had to do my part, which was pleasing him in that way.
Debra LaFave: I’m not trying to give excuses. All I’m being is truthful. I’m going to be the first person to say, “Yes, it’s my fault,” And I’m dealing with that.
Debra LaFave painted a picture of herself as a modest person who developed an emotionally destructive identity early in her life in part due to her own sexual experience. She had emotional problems that stemmed to her childhood – she suffered serious depression and manic phases. Her boyfriend raped her in their bathroom school when she was in 8th grade and her father was emotionally absent. She has a bipolar disorder. She cried for no reason and sometimes found it impossible to do the most basic things in life: brush her teeth, fix a meal, get up from bed.
She described her 14-year-old student victim as being very flirtatious, yelling out to her with his friends from the ballfield. Of her first time engaging in oral sex with him, she said, “Yeah, he wanted it, and yeah, I gave it to him.”
Though LaFave admitted she crossed a line, she said she felt her victim did, too. According to her account, the teenager at one point held her against the wall and lifted her shirt to expose her breast to another boy.
LaFave’s attorney, John Fitzgibbons, said he thought LaFave’s interview accomplished two things; giving her side of the story and informing people about bipolar disorder, which she says contributed to her actions. Fitzgibbons said he and LaFave were satisfied with how the interview was presented by “Dateline.”
One of the final salvos Thursday came from LaFave’s ex-husband, Owen, who appeared on CNN Headline News’ “Nancy Grace” show to promote his book, “Gorgeous Disaster,” and talk about the case. He agreed with his ex-wife’s assertion to Lauer that she should “be in jail.”
He filed for divorce shortly after LaFave’s arrest.
Debra LaFave also acknowledges that the case got so much attention – when similar cases get little or none – because she is attractive. “Sex sells,” she said.
LaFave said she has a difficult time thinking of herself as a sexual predator, as she is now classified under Florida law. “I was a kindhearted person who loved children, who would never, you know, do anything to break the law,” she said. “I was a good person. And then, now everything has just changed. So it’s just really hard for me to accept that.”
Debra LaFave said, “The past two years have been hard on all parties involved. I pray with all my heart that the young man and his family will be able to move on with their lives. Again, I offer my deepest apologies”
She also said her deepest regret is “the fact that I put this young man through this. The media has totally taken it out of proportion and he’s suffering even more so by the media’s actions.”
LaFave went on to say that she hopes the media will let all those involved move on peacefully. When asked about her future plans, she said she is studying to become a journalist.
On Thursday, the mother of the boy she had sex with appeared on MSNBC to rebut LaFave’s claims, calling some of them “outright lies.” The mother, appearing in silhouette to conceal her identity, said Lafave failed to show remorse during her interview. In the eyes of the teen’s mother, LaFave played the victim in her “Dateline” interview. “I was bothered by the fact that she blew an opportunity to acknowledge responsibility and to give the victim’s family some peace of mind,” Sinacore said.
“Saying my son was the aggressor. She was absolutely the aggressor from the very initial moment,” the mother said. “Probably the most disturbing comment is saying my son placed her against the wall and put his hand up against her shirt. That is absolutely, completely false, and if this had gone to trial, that would have been proven by witnesses.”
Asked to describe Debra LaFave, the teen’s mother put it bluntly: “She is calculating. She is manipulative. She is unremorseful and she is a sex offender, and sex offenders come in all shapes and sizes,” she said.
The boy’s mother also said that she has no regrets about the plea deal, because her son is doing wonderfully. He has moved on with his life. She also added, “We are trying so much for him to move on with his life. This will follow her forever. My goal is, it will not follow my son forever, which, for the record, is the reason I go in shadow. The local community knows”they know who I am, they know who my son is. I am not ashamed. My son has nothing to be ashamed of. He did nothing wrong. He was the victim. So my goal is he is going to graduate from high school, go on to college, and live a normal life, and he will. And he is doing extremely well.”
Tags: Bipolar Disorder, Debra LaFave, Teacher Scandals
