Female Teacher Accused of Sex with Five Students Over Five Months

Feb. 9, 2010— -- An Ohio gym teacher accused of having sex with five members of the high school football team over five months and plying the boys with alcohol before seducing them is expected to formally resign tonight.

Stacy Schuler, 32, appeared in court Tuesday charged with 16 felony counts of sexual battery involving five male students and three misdemeanor charges of serving alcohol to minors, according to court records.

She is accused of having sex with each boy once over the course of five months in 2010.

"A teacher is a person with authority over students," Chief Assistant Warren County Prosecutor Bruce McGary said at Schuler's bond hearing.

Each of the 16 felony counts carries a potential prison term of one to five years, said Gary Loxley, spokesman for the Warren County prosecutor.

The age of consent in Ohio is 16, but because Schuler was a teacher and the boys were all high school students under 18 even if the teenagers consented, Schuler would still allegedly be in violation of the law, Loxley said.

"The offender is a teacher, administrator, coach, or other person in authority employed in a school for which the state board of education prescribes minimum standards pursuant to [the law]," reads the indictment in each of the 16 sex abuse counts against her.

Schuler was arrested Friday and bond was set at $50,000. On Tuesday, she was released on her own recognizance, but she was ordered to wear an electronic monitoring device and banned from contact with minors.

"You won't be permitted, based on these allegations, to have any contact with a minor under 18 years old who is not related to you. You can work, if you can. You are to have no contact with any of the persons who are the alleged victims of this matter," Judge Robert Peeler told Schuler from the bench Tuesday.