Outpouring Of Support For Teacher Accused Of Sex With Student

Is this married elementary-school teacher the new Mary Kay Letourneau?

Darcy Smith is accused of having sex with a student for four years, beginning when he was just 14.

The judge asked her, "Do you understand each of the three charges of rape of a child in the third degree?"

Smith responded, "Yes, I do."

Her arraignment was filled with former students and their families who insist she is innocent.

"I think it's a false accusation,"  said one student.

Fourty-one-year-old Smith was once teacher of the year at the Highland school district near Seattle. That's the same school district that the infamous Letourneau once taught in.

Prosecutors say Darcy Smith, a mom herself, took a troubled student into her home when he was just 12. When he turned 14, she allegedly started having sex with the boy. He told cops she would get affectionate with him in the evenings after she drank wine while her husband and children were asleep.

At her arraignment, Smith was told to stay away from school property.

"I have a ton of parents and families contacting me. Does that mean I cannot speak to anyone?"
she asked.

The lawyer responded, "You can't go to the property of the Highland school district is all, ok?"

"Ok. That's it? Ok," she answered.

Brad Meryhew is her lawyer. "Darcy adamantly denies these allegations," he said.

Comparisons to the Mary Kay Letourneau scandal are inevitable. Letourneau was the married mother of four who scandalized America with her affair with a 12-year-old student.

They had two children together and later married.  Meryhew said, "This is a very different story than was told in the Mary Kay Letourneau case."

But Rebecca Morris, author of "Bad Apples," about teacher sex scandals, sees it differently.

She told INSIDE EDITION, "There are a lot of similarities. Married, mothers themselves, and just crossed the line completely with a young male student."