30-year-old Florida teacher sentenced to 22 years in prison for having sex with students

LAKELAND, Fla. -- A 30-year-old former Florida teacher who pleaded guilty to having sex with teenage students was sentenced Thursday to 22 years in prison.

FOX 13 in Tampa Bay reported that Jennifer Fichter apologized to the students' families and her own family at the sentencing hearing, but that apparently did not sway the judge in handing down the sentence.



Fichter was a teacher at Central Florida Aerospace Academy in Lakeland. At least three former students came forward to claim she had a sexual relationship with her when they were 17 years old.

She reportedly had dozens of sexual encounters with the boys that took place in her apartment, her car and in one of the homes of a victim when his mother wasn't home.

Prosecutors said one relationship even resulted in an aborted pregnancy.

Before sentencing, she turned to the family of one of the victims and said, "I hate so much what my selfishness has done because that's what this crime is about. It has been a selfish crime and I am truly sorry for that."

Prosecutors had asked the judge to sentence Fichter to 25 years in prison; the judge gave her 22 years instead.