Mom Reportedly Approved of Teen Son's Affair With Teacher

May 27, 2009— -- Affairs between teachers and students have become increasingly public, but rarely do they come with a parent's stamp of approval.

The mother of a 15-year-old Florida boy who was allegedly having a sexual relationship with a sixth-grade teacher not only knew of the affair, she reportedly endorsed it.

Police in Hialeah, Fla., arrested Maria Hernandez, 32, Saturday and charged her with sexual battery after the school's principal notified the Department of Children and Families.

According to police, Hernandez and the student met at the Our Lady of Charity School in Hialeah where Hernandez taught sixth grade.

Police made the arrest after Hernandez and the boy returned from a vacation together to Disney World in Orlando. Police said Hernandez admitted to the affair.

Calls to home and cell phones registered to Hernandez's address were not immediately returned.

The Miami Herald reported today that the two had a relationship for months before becoming sexually active in March.

According to the Herald, the mother is a Cuban immigrant who is under investigation for both permitting the affair and allowing Hernandez to take her son to Disney World.

Hernandez has since been fired from Our Lady of Charity, a private religious school.

Principal Xenia Torres told ABC affiliate WPLG that she notifed authorities after rumors of the affair began circulating in the small school last week.

"This is someone that we knew for a long time. It's very out of character," she told WPLG. "It's something that happened off the school premises and not during school hours. At this time, we're just going to go ahead and cooperate with the investigation."

Hernandez, a teacher at the school for four years, has been fired.

"The minute we found out, we took action. We let her go right away. We accepted her resignation right then and there," Torres told WPLG.

Mary Kay Letourneau Parlayed Infamy Into 'Hot Teacher Night'

Stories about teacher-student affairs have become more prevalent in recent years, with most of the perpetrators being women.

Mary Kay Letourneau, possibly the most infamous teacher to have an affair with a student, recently made headlines for hosting a "Hot for Teacher" night at a Seattle bar.

Letourneau was arrested in 1996 for having sex with her then 12-year-old student Vili Fualaau. The couple have since married and Fualaau, now 26, is the father of Letourneau's two youngest children.

Last month, an Arizona teacher got caught up in a deadly love triangle with two students that ended when 20-year-old former student Sixto Balbuena allegedly stabbed one of Tamara Hofmann's current students in the stomach after finding them undressed together in her home.

Balbuena, a Navy sailor who was on leave at the time, was charged with the murder of 18-year-old Samuel Valdivia.