I wonder what her husband and family thinks of her conduct? I find that there is no excuse for such behavior. Professionalism in today's world has gone to the dogs. I could not even imagine my teachers being placed in such a situation. I wonder if that's because most of them were ancient and one of them actually wore a wig that looked like it belonged on George Washington's head as he crossed the Delaware. LOL

Of course this woman has to plead not guilty and deny all charges. She had to in order to keep getting a paycheck until the last minute. She should be made to pay back every cent she got while on "Paid administrative leave", then they should lock her up and throw away the key. If she had been a man, (as history has proven) she would have spent the last 6 months in jail while the investigation was going on. I grew up in the East Valley School District and Graduated from there and if something like this would have happened back then, you can bet all "HELL" would have broken loose!!! It really makes you wonder if our Public School System are too worried about fancy buildings and state of the art equipment than the Students that they are actually there for. There are millions of people who are very successful in thier carreers that had the basic 3-R's educations and it didn't cost the taxpayers an arm and a leg to get them there.

I can't believe there is still an area on earth that is as primitive as the Yakima county. I have read the articles written in the YHR and I know to not always make a judgement on them, because the reporters are not entirely accurate. I am sure that anyone who reads the YHR has had this same attitude, one time or another. I went to a valley high school and a male teacher openly dated a senior girl and it was accepted. I thought it was unethical, but being in middle school at the time, no one cared about my opinion. Was it right? I don't know, but there was no publicity and no careers ruined. Has anyone thought about the possibility that this woman did not commit any crime? What if she didn't? Unless I am selected for jury duty and hear all the facts I am not worthy to judge.

"I wonder what her husband and family thinks of her conduct? I find that there is no excuse for such behavior."

Without trying to be too snarky or diminishing what may have happened - What do you suppose they think? Put your daughter, sister or wife in the same position and what would you think?

Whether it is a male or female teacher in this kind of trouble, they are typically people just like you and me who made stupid decisions that now face jail time for those decisions. They often were active in the community, maybe a church, the neighborhood, before the "news" they were friends with many people around them. I'm still waiting for a documented case of one being an alien from space with different feelings, values, religious affiliations, lifestyle from everyone else we know to be charged like this.

Even if not found guilty, she's screwed. She humiliated herself, her spouse, probably a couple generations of family members and of course her kids will have it "pop" into their lives periodically until they are too old to care - some adult will make sure of that. If I remember right Mary Kay Letourneau's husband took the kids to live in the backwoods of Alaska. So you are correct, there is clearly no excuse for bringing this down on everybody.

Again, not excusing the act - why would an otherwise typical human being do this - take this risk? Why do typical human beings get involved in DUI Homicides, or Hit and Run felonies, have a mishandled weapon fire and strike a child, cheat on their spouses and get caught. As human's we sometimes make bad mistakes (lapses in judgment) - and occasionally pay dearly for them.

Growing up in Yakima I can develop a pretty cold sweat thinking about some of the things I did, that had they gone just one degree different could have jammed me up for life. I used to think I "went stupid" for a moment or as Jimmy Buffett put it "I hit the fool button". Even 40 years go too many young friends died from these mistakes.

There have been enough cases like this one, that no teacher can possibly say "they didn't know" what the consequences would be, which indicates to me that sentencing as deterrence doesn't work for mistakes.

I guess all I am saying is that it is easy to get up our self-righteous high-horse, but when the feeling passes just remember there are one or more families really hurting here and at risk - through no fault of their own. The damage unfortunately is probably much greater than any can imagine even today. Why add to their suffering. The system will deal with her either way.

EXACTLY! Why is everyone making judgement on this teacher. As a parent in the EV community, I know that Mrs. Taylor is a very hard working, fun, enthusiastic teacher who cares deeply for her students. She is by far one of the best PE teachers in the area. Almost all of her students LOVE her class and get excited about health and fitness as a result.
If we were to start making judgement about the situation, lets start looking into the background of these two boys. the 15 year old beat up a younger kids because he was upset about the abuse he was receiving at home. He is very cold and calculated. He definitely has mental issues as a result of his family life. The 16 year old is a complete jerk. All the students at EVHS would say that the only person that even cared about him was Mrs. Taylor. All the other teachers and students couldn't stand him because he is such a racist jerk to everyone.

I think that the school district is making a huge mistake by moving forward with the termination process. They are going to look like fools when she is found not guilty in the criminal setting.

"The 15 year old beat up a younger kids because he was upset about the abuse he was receiving at home. He is very cold and calculated. He definitely has mental issues as a result of his family life. The 16 year old is a complete jerk."

So because these are "bad" kids, the teacher can't possibly be guilty? Predatory sexual offenders are most likely to take advantage of children/youth who have troubled lives. They are most easily groomed for abuse because they feel that the offender is the only one who really cares for or loves them. I'm passing no judgment here, but before you elect yourself judge and jury you should really understand more about predators.

For a person who doesn't want to be judge and jury it sounds like you have already made up your mind. My point is I am not in a position to judge prematurely and neither is anyone else, because I don't know all the facts. I am sure that the jury chosen will have more informational from both sides and yes they will learn a lot about sexual predators, backgrounds of all involved, and reputations. I would think in our society we are innocent until proven guilty. so why not suspend the teacher, pending the court's decision? This is a professional career on the line. On the other hand I would hope counseling is provided for the alleged victims.

I'm not being judge and jury, merely the Devil's Advocate, if you will. Everyone is entitled to their opinion, but that doesn't mean I can't interject my own knowledge as well.

Whatever happened to "innocent until proven guilty?" I certainly am not minimizing the allegations, but would simply like to point out that anyone can make allegations & accusations against anyone else, regardless of their credibility. Believe it or not, it's actually becoming a trend to where accusers target professional folks who work in schools, corrections, counselors, physicians, daycares, clergy, etc. in hopes of achieving a conviction on just 1 of possibly many alleged charges. Why? The answer is money. A conviction opens the door to civil lawsuit where the folks like Ms. Taylor are simply used as an instrument to get to the deep pockets of the employer.