Teacher in sex case hospitalized

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

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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.