Teacher Held on Suspicion of Sex With Minor

An English teacher at Granada Hills High School, who allegedly had a month-long affair with a 17-year-old student, was arrested on suspicion of having unlawful sex with a minor, police said Sunday.

Florine Maria Strimel, 35, who is being held at the Twin Towers jail in lieu of $265,000 bail, was taken into custody late Friday at her home in the 500 block of Salem Street in Glendale, according to Glendale Police Sgt. Rick Young.

Strimel is scheduled to be arraigned Tuesday in Glendale Municipal Court on three felony charges, including child abduction, unlawful sexual intercourse with a minor and unlawful oral copulation, Young said.

Investigators said they learned of the relationship Friday after Strimel dropped the boy off at the high school, where he was detained by school officials and Los Angeles police.

The boy, who recently turned 17, told authorities he went home from school with Strimel last Wednesday on the same day he was reported missing by his parents, according to Young.

From interviews, authorities determined that Strimel, who is not married, had been dating the boy for a month and that the pair had had sex numerous times, Young said.

Neither Los Angeles School District officials nor Granada Hills High School Principal Kathy Rattay returned calls seeking comment on the allegations.

It was not known how long Strimel, who is a 10th-grade English teacher, had been teaching at Granada Hills.

“Here you have a young man and an older woman, who was an authority figure and should have been a role model,” Young said. “However, she took advantage of that position and misled the boy, who is very confused over this relationship.”

Police, who also were looking into the possibility that Strimel was involved with other young victims, retrieved evidence from her home in connection with the investigation, Young said.

“We do have information provided by neighbors that numerous young men have been coming and going from her home, usually on weekends.”

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The arrest is reminiscent of a case involving a Tacoma, Wash., elementary school teacher, Mary Kay LeTourneau, who was found guilty in August 1997 of having sex with a sixth-grader and later gave birth to their daughter.

LeTourneau, 36, who is serving a seven-year, five-month term for second-degree child rape, is believed to have given birth to a second child fathered by the 15-year-old former student.

In a notable local case, Burbank schools fund-raiser Salle Dumm was arrested but not found guilty of charges that she seduced a 17-year-old football player.

The youth, now an adult, testified that Dumm seduced him and offered him money for the Burbank High School football program if he would “do this for your team.”

But Dumm testified that the youth approached her for sex without any invitation while she was intoxicated and asleep at her home after a social gathering there.

More recently, Heather Jean Graham, 35, was sentenced to 89 days in jail after pleading guilty in Santa Ana last month to having sex three times with a 13-year-old boy who attended the Santa Ana school where she coached cheerleading.