40-YEAR-OLD TEACHER CHARGED WITH HAVING SEX WITH TEENAGE BOY

A 40-year-old middle school teacher was criminally charged Wednesday with
having an 18-month sexual affair with a former student, now 16.

An arrest warrant was issued for Beth Friedman of Hollywood. Friedman, who
taught Spanish and study skills at Silver Lakes Middle School in North
Lauderdale, resigned her teaching post Aug. 4.

She is expected to surrender to detectives soon, said her attorney, John Adair.

She has been charged with three counts of indecent assault, two counts of
unlawful sexual activity with a minor and one count of contributing to the
delinquency of a minor. If convicted on all counts she could face up to 76
years in prison.

Friedman was unavailable for comment Wednesday. In an earlier interview with
The Herald, she denied having any improper relationship with the teenager.

"No. I never did any of that -- I'm very close with his family," she said at
the time, adding that she could not explain why the family filed the complaint.

Hollywood Police said Friedman had consensual sex with the boy on several
occasions and provided him with drugs, including marijuana, LSD and cocaine.
The boy, a former student in Friedman's seventh-grade study skills class,
was 14 when the alleged affair began, police said.

Police said Friedman and the boy met on several occasions at her home, her
mother's home at drive-in movies and other locations throughout South Florida.

Friedman and the boy also did drugs and had sex in front of other young
students visiting her home, police said.

She may have also had relationships with other boys, police said.

"I think there are other victims out there," said Hollywood Police detective
Curt Navarro. "We need to find any boys who had sexual contact with her."

The charges against Friedman come more than two months after the boy and his
parents filed a complaint with the Hollywood police.

It is the latest sex-related embarrassment for the Broward school system
this year.

On Tuesday, the School Board agreed to suspend with pay two teachers
arrested during a raid on a private sex club outside Pompano Beach in
January. Tuesday's vote came after mounting public pressure. The board had
earlier suspended the teachers without pay.

The board did not get a chance to act on Friedman's case. She resigned.

Her resignation and pending arrest were greeted with relief by the boy's
family on Wednesday.

"This isn't about us anymore," said the boy's father, who is divorced from
the mother. "The big thing is to get this teacher away from our children. I
am extremely relieved she will finally be arrested -- this can never happen
again.

"My son is a little uneasy about it all -- he's lost his money source -- but
he's handling it all pretty well," the father, a Tamarac roofer, said.

The boy admitted the affair on June 13 after returning home from a
rendezvous with Friedman, his father said. A complaint was filed that day,
accusing Friedman of plying the boy with sex, cash and drugs and taking him
on overnight trips to Orlando, Tampa and the Keys.

The boy said he grew accustomed to the gifts and money Friedman lavished on him.

"I know now that she manipulated me," the teenager said. "I got used to
having $100 a day and getting anything I wanted. If everything is free, why
turn it down?"

Friedman also gave him $1,500 to buy a 1979 Chevrolet Caprice Classic, the
boy said.

"Friedman gave him marijuana on a daily basis," the police report says.

Navarro's report said other young students allegedly "watched Friedman have
sex with the boy and give him and other juveniles drugs and alcohol."

The boy said the relationship began innocently 1 1/2 years ago with Friedman
offering him a ride home one day.

"Then we just started going to Race-O-Rama, expensive Red Lobster dinners,
movies," the boy said. "After we hooked up, she would let me drive her Jeep
Cherokee, paid for Jet-Skis and bought me clothes she would wear to school.
She hung out with my mom, too."

Friedman befriended the boy's mother. Then in late 1997, she allowed the
boy, his mother and a younger brother to move in with her. They shared her
townhouse near Topeekeegee Yugnee Park in Hollywood for nine months in 1997
and 1998.

The boy's father said everything seemed legitimate in the beginning.

"At the time it wasn't about Beth and my son -- it was about a friend
helping my ex-wife through a hard time," he said. "I had no suspicion back
then, it was just a teacher helping a student and her new friend.

"She got our permission to take him and a friend on trips to Tampa and
Orlando -- but then she singled my son out and it escalated."

Navarro said the affair had become so well known around Silver Lakes Middle
that when he began his investigation "people at the school were pulling me
aside -- telling me something was wrong here."

Friedman, of 3220 Laurel Oak Lane in Hollywood, taught in the Broward school
district for nearly a decade, spending a year each at Piper, Hollywood Hills
and Hallandale high schools from 1980-1983. She began teaching at Silver
Lakes Middle in September 1993 after a 10-year hiatus.

Of the evaluations that are open for inspection -- 1993 to 1997 -- she
received satisfactory ratings. In 1997, the assessor wrote: "Ms. Friedman
has an excellent rapport with her students, a key quality when working with
middle school students."

Herald Staff Writer Wanda DeMarzo contributed to this report. e-mail:
aramirez@herald.com