Married Ala. Teachers Each Charged With Student Sex

Private-school teachers Jamie and Charli Parker have been arrested a day apart in Alabama on separate yet identical charges of having sex with a student under the age of 19, reports AL.com. The husband and wife both teach and coach at Pickens Academy, a private school in Carrollton, a town of just 1,000 people. Charli Parker, 30, was arrested last Monday and is accused of having sex with a male student on 11 occasions, including at a cemetery, while Jamie Parker, 32, was arrested Wednesday and is accused of having sex with a female former student, reports WBRC. Both have been suspended from teaching as the investigation continues.

"We are obviously shocked and dismayed by this allegation and will be working to support all of our students and families in coping with this news," Pickens Academy Headmaster Brach White says in a statement. The Class B felony charges carry potential sentences of two to 20 years in prison. Pickens County Sheriff David Abston says someone alerted police, reports WIAT.com, though neither he nor the district attorney would comment further. The neighbors, meanwhile, aren't holding back. "My initial reaction is shock that this could happen in Pickens County," says one resident. "We were all taught that teachers were people you could look up to and know they would protect our children." (Also in Alabama, this teacher married his student just weeks after she graduated from high school.)