Teacher Who Had Baby by Sixth-Grader Is Sentenced

Three months later, she said, LeTourneau suffered a difficult miscarriage, and had entered a "nervous breakdown mode" when the relationship with the student began. "As she got to know the boy in question, she suddenly switched to finding the man in her life, as she put it. . . . This was something special, this was something good, this was like having her father alive again."

The boy told authorities they had sex about six times over the next year, usually at her home or in the back of her car. His teacher, he said, warned him of devastating consequences if he talked about it. She made a deliberate decision to get pregnant, he said, so they could remain bonded.

The relationship was revealed when LeTourneau's husband found love letters in February that she had written to the boy. One of his relatives eventually phoned the school district, which alerted police. She was arrested the same day, but allowed to remain out of jail until she gave birth to the baby in June.

Since then, her husband has moved out of state with their four children. Her husband by court order oversees all her correspondence with the children, ages 12, 10, 5 and 3.

LeTourneau sees her 5-month-old daughter only when a state social worker brings the baby to the jail.

Prosecutors had urged the judge to send LeTourneau to prison for at least six years, citing her failure to recognize the harmfulness of her relationship with the boy. Indeed, said psychologist Robert Wheeler, LeTourneau continues to exhibit a strong anti-authoritarian bent.

"She demonstrated no recognition of the abuse of trust and power that's implicit in a sexual relationship between a teacher and a sixth-grade student," Wheeler said. "She continually characterized the relationship as a relationship between equals."

LeTourneau, he said, "indicated unequivocally her willingness to reunite with this boy. There's at least anecdotal evidence that he continues to be enthralled with her. They share a child together, which provides a potential link of access between the two . . . it poses a very real risk of further harm to this boy."

But the judge, who also imposed a suspended sentence of seven years, four months, said both LeTourneau and the community would be best served if she undergoes closely supervised community-based treatment, rather than a prison term. Strict conditions prevent LeTourneau from seeing the boy and require her to avoid all unsupervised contact with minors. Her lawyer, David Gehrke, said it is likely, however, that she will regain custody of her infant daughter after serving her six-month jail term.

He said LeTourneau will live with a friend and undergo treatment over at least the next three years. In the meantime, he said, she no longer has sexual feelings for the boy. "She still has a lot of respect and feelings for the boy, but the sexual desire, I'm confident, is gone."

LeTourneau, who was raised in Tustin and Newport Beach, had hoped to hide her family identity after her arrest, because her father, who exemplified Orange County firebrand conservatism for nearly 20 years, was dying of cancer, she told the Seattle Times in August.

John Schmitz has seven other children and now lives in Washington, D.C. Neither he nor his wife, Mary, could be reached for comment.