Dozens of female teachers have been arrested this year across
the nation for sex crimes involving students - as the seeming
number of 'cougars in the classroom' continues to grow.

A long line of female teachers allegedly involved with
youngsters across the country dominates headlines.

DailyMail.com discovered that 25 female teachers had been
arrested in 16 states in only the last 12 months - and it is
feared to be merely the tip of the iceberg as there appears to
be no centralized data collection to track this disturbing trend.

In the last month, married New Jersey teacher Jessica Sawicki,
37, was arrested after cops found her half-naked in the back
seat of a teen's car at a wildlife center. The mother-of-two
allegedly admitted to police she and the student had
'unprotected' sex at least five times.

In Nebraska, 45-year-old Erin Ward was arrested after being
caught naked in the backseat with a teen boy. The substitute
teacher is married to a Department of Defense official and was
quickly arrested at the scene by police.

Many of the accused female teachers charged in the last year are
married and one was even named teacher of the year.

The teachers are enticing students with sexually-charged texts,
nude photos and videos, before and during physical encounters,
police say.

Leading child psychologist Dr. Michael Oberschneider, of Ashburn
Psychological Services, said social media influence has
contributed to the abuse dynamic and rise in number of cases.

'Social media can serve to blur the lines between the student-
teacher relationship, which can in turn open the doors to more
inappropriate outcomes,' he said.

He explained that students have more access to their teachers
through various online formats, which can lead to inappropriate
communication and even inappropriate relationships of a sexual
nature.

'As we've seen in the news, some female teachers are choosing to
put out sexually focused content on sites like OnlyFans,
Loyalfans, Fansly and other similar platforms that students can
then see and be part of,' Oberschneider explained.

He said even Instagram, and other social media platforms, allow
students to see, and to possibly interact with, their teacher in
more personal or intimate ways.

Another contributing factor,is the 24-hour news cycle as more of
these cases are being reported, Oberschneider said.

In his estimation, 80 percent of teachers who abuse students,
are still predominantly male.

He explained the research shows, males are more opportunistic,
more predatory and more aggressive with the motivation being
focused on sex.

While female teachers tend to be motivated, it seems, to abuse
their students in different ways and for different reasons. It
often revolves around emotional conflict, unmet intimacy needs,
personal issues, loneliness and feelings of isolation.

Fourth-grade English teacher, Alissa McCommon, 38; Stephanie
Woods, 28, a biology teacher, tennis and basketball coach from
San Antonio, Texas; Allie Kheradmand, 33, of Virginia; Allie
Elizabeth Bardfield, a married mother of four from Illinois;
Emma Delaney Hancock, 26, a former substitute teacher at
Wellston High School in Oklahoma; Heather Hare, a teacher at
Bryant High School; and Hailey Clifton-Carmack, 26, are just
some of the teachers who have found themselves in headlines in
recent months because of their arrests.

Hancock, 26, a former teacher at the Wellston Public School
district is accused of texting a 15-year-old in October 2022 to
send him a school assignment.

After a few weeks the teen he sent a shirtless snap of himself
to Hancock via Snapchat, documents say.

Hancock responded saying, 'are we sending half naked pictures
now?' the teen responding, 'I don't know, are we?' she then
allegedly replied, 'Are you trying to get me to lose my job?'
the documents say.

The affidavit then said Hancock and the teen began exchanging
nude photos and videos of sex acts more frequently.

The messages later escalated into Hancock and the teen kissing
each other on two occasions while in classrooms. Hancock is also
accused of touching the teen inappropriately during the second
time they kissed, according to the court filing.

Hancock is married to the town's Chief of Police Alfred Hancock
and is believed to be the daughter of Wellston Mayor Paul
Whitnah.

Hare, 33, pleaded guilty in federal court to transporting a
minor across state lines for the purpose of unlawful sexual
activity and now faces up to life in prison.

Hare had sex with the victim, a male student at Bryant High
School in Arkansas, 20 to 30 times throughout the 2021-2022
school year, including on a class trip to Washington, DC.

Before her arrest and resignation from the high school in April
of last year, Hare was cherished by her students. They even
recorded a farewell video when her class was temporarily halted
during the pandemic.

Clifton-Carmack, 26, from Waynesville, near St. Louis, was
arrested by the Garden Ridge Police Department on accusations of
having a relationship with a 16-year-old high school student.

The sexual assaults are alleged to have taken place in
Missouri's Pulaski County, about 800 miles away from where she
was apprehended by cops.

In a further twist to the case, the teenage boy's father has
also been charged with endangering the welfare of a child after
it was claimed he knew that his son was in a relationship with
the educator.

Court documents state that the teen and teacher had sex during
school and used other students as 'lookouts.'

In Arizona, three teachers from the same town - Alyssa Todd,
Jessica Kramer and Diana Pirvu, were charged with committing
crimes against students.

Todd, 23, was arrested for 'inappropriate contact' between her
and a student, making her the second teacher in seven months to
be arrested for a sex crime at Odyssey Institute for Advanced
and International Studies High School in Buckeye.

In mid-September, 42-year-old teacher Kramer was accused of
having an inappropriate relationship with a 17-year-old male
student at the same school.

And in October, a 23-year-old female teaching assistant, Pirvu,
was accused of having 'inappropriate contact' with a 13-year-old
student at a nearby Buckeye middle school, Imagine Schools.

The constant string of teachers in headlines, has left many
educators frustrated with the epidemic.

Lexy, 23, a teacher from Long Island, feels these predatory
teachers give new teachers, like she is to the field, a bad
reputation.

'It's extremely disturbing and disheartening to see all of
these cases of young teachers abusing their power and taking
advantage of young students,' she told DailyMail.com.

'As teachers we go into it with full hearts ready to help
students and get them ready for their future. You spend the
entire day with them and for a whole year you truly get to know
these students and I could never imagine someone going into
teaching with the intention of hurting and abusing these
students.'

But, a 53-year-old teacher that has been working in the New York
City school district for more than a decade, said it so
unimaginable with the age gaps and chalks it up as people not
considered normal.

'I really don't think they give other teachers a bad name
because it is so over the top,' the unnamed educator said.

Business Insider's Matt Drange revealed in a recent report about
the epidemic of teacher relationships many of the sordid details
- including emoji-filled text messages, transcripts from
investigations and disciplinary files.

Drange said, the pages 'documented grooming and groping, the
sharing of d**k picks and porn, sexualized comments in
classrooms, oral sex in bathrooms, and statutory rape,' that in
some cases continued for years.

His report highlights a disturbing pattern that 'school
administrators across the United States catastrophically failing
to prevent abuse,' and there is no federal agency, he said, that
tracks teacher sexual misconduct.

Drang said during his investigation, he requested disciplinary
records and severance agreements from the ten largest school
districts in all 50 states, and license revocations from every
state's Department of Education, but his request was met with
opposition.

Alabama, Iowa, and Virginia refused to release any records, he
said. While other districts, asked to be compensated, in order
for the request to be filled.

In his report, he wrote that the Hawaii Department of Education
asked for $75,060. The Katy Independent School District in Texas
wanted $125,352, and the Lincoln Public Schools in Nebraska
invoiced $243,836.

While other districts, he revealed, never provided records,
including Alaska's Bering Strait School District. In 2019, the
BSSD paid $12.6 million to 13 sex abuse victims involving an
instructor at the school.

Springfield Public Schools in Massachusetts, was another
district he cited, that would not release any records and
claimed it would be an 'invasion of the teachers' privacy
outweighing any possible right of the public to know.'