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$70K bond for teacher accused of sex with student

POLK COUNTY, Fla. — A Polk County judge set a high bond for a Lakeland teacher accused of having sex with a 17-year-old student.
 
Jennifer Fichter was arrested late Monday night and charged with six counts of unlawful sex with a minor.
 
During Fichter's appearance before the judge Wednesday, there were allegations that she has had sex with a student previously.
 
Fichter, 29, smiled at the camera in the Polk County Jail courtroom and even corrected the judge at one point as he told her the conditions of her $70,000 bond. Channel 9's Kathi Belich learned that the bond is twice the amount normally set in a case like Fichter's.
 
Fichter, an English teacher, will have a curfew of 10 p.m. to 6 a.m., and she was told not to have contact with the student she was accused of having sex with.
 
"No paging, no faxing, no texting," the judge told Fichter.  
 
Fichter's attorney convinced the judge not to make her wear a GPS monitor, which the state wanted because of what it called her "subterfuge and deception."
 
Her attorney would not speak with Belich following the hearing.
 
Records show Fichter said she is in love with the student and he had gotten her pregnant. According to records, she had an abortion.
 
Documents show she used the name of another student when she texted the young man she was accused of having sex with, and tried to convince the boy's mother over the phone that she really was the student.
 
According to police, Fichter and the teen eventually admitted to an affair.    
 
Belich learned that two years ago, Fichter was investigated after being accused of sending inappropriate texts to another Polk County high school student.
 
In that case, Polk County sheriff's officials concluded she broke no laws and Polk County School District officials said she was not disciplined.