SHOCK AS TEACHER ADMITS BEING IN A RELATIONSHIP WITH A STUDENT

Police say biology teacher Ashley Elizabeth Zehnder confessed the relationship after being confronted with a string of explicit texts.

 A teacher has been exposed for having a sexual relationship with a pupil after admitting a naked selfie may be circulating among her students, police say.

Biology teacher Ashley Elizabeth Zehnder, 24, went to the assistant head teacher at Pasadena High School in Houston claiming that pupils had got hold of a nude photo of her from an old mobile.

But when senior staff investigated further, a 17-year-old boy said he had the picture because Zehnder had sent it to him and they had been sleeping together since May.

KHOU.com reports Zehnder later resigned, and when prosecutors presented her with explicit texts between herself and the student she admitted to the relationship.

Assistant district attorney Nick Socias said: "She admitted to sending the nude photo to the student, knowing in fact that he was a student, and that they had sex."

Zehnder appeared in court on Monday charged with having an inappropriate relationship with a student, and has been released on bail.

American schools have been rocked by a number of sex scandals in recent months.

Arkansas teacher Mary Faith McCormick was arrested last month over allegations she had sex with a 13-year-old pupil.

The mum-of-one was accused of having a three-month affair with the teenager after he contacted her on social media.

Also in September, it emerged a Texas teacher had performed a lap dance for one of her pupils in a room full of other students , because she wanted to give the 15-year-old birthday present.

 Back in August, Utah schoolmistress Brianne Altice was accused of having sex with a teenage boy while awaiting trial for sleeping with another pupil.

And earlier this month, Louisiana teachers Shelley Dufresne and Rachel Respess were accused of having a threesome with one of their teenage pupils , with some of their encounters caught on film.