Houston Teacher Had Sex With Boy for Months, Got Pregnant--His Parents Approved

A Houston middle school teacher who police say had a long term sexual relationship with a former student, turned herself in to Police Wednesday. The odd thing about the case is, the parents approved of the relationship, knew about it, let the boy stay with Vera overnight. Odd that is, from an American Cultural Perspective.

The whole thing has been highly destructive to Vera's life, and it's hard to say why, given that the boy and his parents both consented and approved, and Vera was a willing participant. Perhaps it's a case of American cultural ethics being imposed on immigrants who grew up with a foreign -- and more liberal -- sexual ethos. Refusal to treat boys and girls differently, when obviously they are, is another aspect of this story.

Alexandria Vera, a 24-year-old English teacher at Stovall Middle School, turned herself in Wednesday morning to Montgomery County police, local TV reported.

Vera has been charged with "continuous sexual abuse of a child." She was released from the Montgomery County Jail after posting $100,000 bond. Both the teacher and the boy are Hispanic, which is important since in traditional Mexican culture, teenagers are allowed to have sexual relationships, and couples where the woman is older than the man are commonplace and not denigrated.

Vera said the relationship began in September, and said she and the 13-year-old were in love. This according to court documents obtained by the Houston Chronicle.

Vera told Aldine school district police that she met the boy in 2015, during summer school. The boy asked for her Instagram name, which she says initially she refused to give him. He later found her, and she rejected his "friend" request.

When school resumed in the fall, Vera said the boy flirted with her and made comments that were "unprofessional." The student eventually asked if they could "hang out" and she agreed. Vera told police when she picked up the boy, they would kiss in the car and later had sex at his parents' house, with the boy's parents full knowledge and consent.

She met the boy's parents at a school open house in October, then went drove the boy to his home. He introduced her as his girlfriend to the parents, new immigrants who completely accepted the relationship as they would have in their native Mexico, according to the documents.

Documents state the sexual encounters continued on an almost daily basis. Vera told police that the boy often spent the night at her apartment, and that she'd drive him home in the morning so he could catch the bus.

She told police that she became pregnant in January and that the family was supportive and excited about the baby, documents state.

She said she decided to have an abortion after Child Protective Services showed up at the school in February to ask about her relationship with the boy. She later denied the pregnancy and the relationship to CPS. It is ironic that the only real victim in this story, is Vera's unborn baby.

Vera voluntarily gave her phone to officials, in order to prove that messages the couple exchanged, supported Vera's story.

Neighbors told KHOU-TV that teenage boys were often at Vera's home in Spring, where she lived with her young daughter.

In a statement from Aldine ISD provided to the Chronicle, district officials said Vera was immediately fired in April and placed on administrative leave after allegations were made.

"Aldine ISD police investigated the incident and turned their findings over to the Harris County district attorney's office," the statement reads. "The safety and security of Aldine ISD's students and staff remains a priority of the school district."

Stovall Middle School made headlines in 2014 when a teacher was accused of giving a student a lap dance on his birthday. She was ultimately sentenced to probation. The boy was sentenced to five years of hand slaps from his male student colleagues.

Age disparity in sexual relationships and sexual relationships between individuals of a significant difference in age have been documented for most of recorded history and have been regarded with a wide range of attitudes, from normalized acceptance to taboo. Concepts of these relationships and of the exact definition of a "significant" age disparity have developed over time and vary between societies, legal systems (particularly with regards to the age of consent), and ethical systems. These views are rarely uniform even within cultures and are affected by views of consent, marriage, and gender roles, and by perceptions of social and economic differences between age groups.