Risking it All

In the spring of 2000, Heather Ingram, a 30-year-old high school teacher in a small town on the coast of British Columbia, was convicted of the sexual exploitation of a minor for having an affair with a 17-year-old student. A straight A student who graduated at the top of her high school class and won the award for top student in the secondary education program at the University of British Columbia, Ingram went on to become one of the most popular and highly respected teachers at Chatelech Secondary School in Sechelt, B.C. Trapped in an unhappy relationship that was undermining her self-confidence, Ingram found herself more and more drawn to Troy, a rebellious young student in her accounting class. She describes in unstinting detail how what began as a mild flirtation developed into a powerful attraction and then into a relationship of several years’ duration, which had the full support of Troy’s family. Ingram also describes the pain of going public with the affair, the loss of her job and her status in the community,her trial and conviction, and the ten months she spent under house arrest.