Teacher in sex case hospitalized

By CASEY CORA, Times Staff Writer
Published October 30, 2007

ADVERTISEMENT Christina Butler is accused of having sex with one of her students at Middleton High School.

TAMPA - Christina Lin Butler, the Middleton High School teacher accused of having sex with one of her 16-year-old special education students, has been hospitalized because of severe emotional distress, her attorney said Monday.

The attorney, Tom Fox, said Butler was directed to a local hospital by a private psychiatrist last week. Her condition stems from a "long-standing diagnosis," Fox said.

Pressed on the details of her condition, Fox declined to comment, but said "all I can really tell you is that it's severe."

"This is not a Hollywood hospitalization," he said. "It's medically necessary."

Butler, 33, was charged with engaging in lewd or lascivious battery and was released from jail Wednesday after posting $7,500 bail. She was ordered into a local treatment facility the next day, Fox said.

Police say Butler and the teenager had sex up to a dozen times. She has since been suspended with pay, according to Hillsborough school spokeswoman Linda Cobbe.

[Last modified October 29, 2007, 23:59:11]