TAMPA - Before she became a national spectacle, ridiculed and chastised for smiling eerily after her third arrest involving sex with a student, middle school math teacher Stephanie Ragusa had a history of breaking rules.
She stole money from one job, claimed on a resume to have graduated from college with honors when she had not and checked a box on an employment application that indicated she had never been charged with a serious crime even though she had been arrested on charges of aggravated battery and driving under the influence.
Ragusa still managed to become a teacher - and she still couldn't follow the rules.
She was disciplined for cursing in front of students. Parents remember her bringing a wine cooler to an eighth-grade party.
On March 13, Ragusa became the latest Florida teacher caught in a student sex scandal when she was charged with having sex with a 14-year-old boy. A month later, the 29-year-old was arrested again after investigators identified another victim, now 16.
What happened next seemed implausible.
Authorities say that two weeks after her second arrest, Ragusa drove her live-in boyfriend's white Dodge Ram truck to the 16-year-old's house and had sex with him while his friend sat in the next room. The friend took pictures with his cell phone of Ragusa kissing the teen.
So far, few people have publicly defended her or offered any explanation for the crimes with which she is charged. Ragusa's father declined to comment; other family members could not be reached. Of the friends contacted by The Tampa Tribune, only one agreed to go on the record.
Any insight into Ragusa's personality and mindset come mostly from a litany of problems spelled out in arrest reports, court documents and school district personnel files.
Last week, a transcript of a secretly taped conversation between Ragusa and one of the teens was released to the public, offering a glimpse of Ragusa's understanding of the rules about teachers having sex with students.
"No one would understand," she told the teen. "Let's put it that way. ...You can't explain it to anybody in any way where they would be like, 'Oh, that's cool. Oh, that's OK.'"
Later in the conversation, she adds, "I don't agree with, like, I don't know, society's and people's judgment about this."
Bay Area Native
Ragusa grew up in the Tampa Bay area. She adored her parents, Angela and Ricardo Ragusa, friends say, and was protective of her older brother, Christian, who is autistic. She attended St. Cecelia's Catholic School in Clearwater.
The Ragusas were a tight-knit family, friends say. In 1994, they rallied together when Christian, then 17, was transferred from LaVoy Exceptional Center to Chamberlain High School in Tampa as part of Hillsborough County's push to mainstream special education students.
Saying he was too violent, the district eventually decided to return Christian to LaVoy. Angela Ragusa, an adjunct professor at Hillsborough Community College and Florida Metropolitan University, thought the move would be too disruptive. The family fought the transfer in federal court, but eventually lost.
Ragusa graduated in 1997 from Clearwater Central Catholic High School and attended Florida State University until the summer of 2000. That's where Darren Muse of Tampa met Ragusa. He recalled a cute but awkward girl who tried hard to impress others with unbelievable stories.
"She seemed as though she'd try anything to get people's attention - even if she had to ruin her career doing something immoral - just as long as people would look at her," said Muse, who remembered meeting Ragusa at a fraternity party in the fall of 1997. "To the Stephanie I knew, that would be an acceptable trade-off."
A Downward Spiral
Muse said Ragusa told him she disappeared from Florida State University in the middle of the semester to travel with bands such as Sugar Ray. He didn't believe her. She also tried to convince him once that she was the cousin of a girl he knew, but it wasn't true, he said.
Ragusa left FSU and returned to Tampa, where she enrolled at the University of South Florida and graduated in 2002 with a degree in political science.
During that time, her mother's health deteriorated, and Ragusa's life began a downward turn.
At 22, she was arrested for stealing from her job at the Pottery Barn in Citrus Park mall. She admitted that she credited her charge card with a nearly $300 customer return. Because it was her first offense, Ragusa was allowed to participate in an intervention program. After three years, the charges were dismissed.
On March 15, 2003, her mother died of cancer at age 60. Stephanie was devastated, friends say. They describe Angela Ragusa as the family rock, taking care of everyone's needs.
Now 23, Stephanie attempted to fill those shoes, but found herself stumbling.
For a few years, Ragusa seemed to drift, her friends say, as she dabbled in journalism, worked on her master's degree at USF and volunteered with Big Brothers/Big Sisters of Tampa Bay. She was nicknamed "the cat lady" because at one time she owned about a dozen cats.
She flirted with sports reporting for a couple of Web sites and wrote an article about a boxing match for the Tribune.
On Oct. 21, 2004, she was charged with aggravated battery after her 24-year-old boyfriend, Michael Zak, told authorities Ragusa hit him repeatedly with a golf club at the Plantation Palms Golf Club in Land O' Lakes after he accused her of cheating on him. The charge was dropped.
Less than a year later, on July 15, 2005, Ragusa was arrested by Tampa police at 2:30 a.m. in Ybor City for suspicion of driving under the influence. She refused a breath-alcohol test, records show. The charge was dismissed at trial.
Problems In The Classroom
In 2006, Ragusa turned her attention toward becoming a teacher. Records show her time with the Hillsborough County Schools district was turbulent from the start.
She wrote on her July 2006 teacher application to become a Hillsborough County teacher that she had never been charged with a serious crime. A routine fingerprint check uncovered her criminal history a month later. Ragusa acknowledged her previous arrests and was allowed to continue teaching after meeting with a school investigator from the professional standards office.
When applicants fail to disclose information on their resume, they usually are given a second chance if the falsehoods are considered relatively minor and if they admit it, a school district spokeswoman said. Since Ragusa's arrests, the district has decided to review its procedures for hiring teachers.
Ragusa had said on her resume she graduated from USF with honors and misspelled "summa cum laude," writing "suma cum laude" instead. There were no honors, the university said.
Problems surfaced during Ragusa's first year in the classroom. Child welfare investigators were called in September 2006 to look into accusations Ragusa physically restrained a female student to keep her from leaving the classroom. School officials referred Ragusa to an anger management class. She completed the program and was allowed to transfer from Madison Middle School to Davidsen Middle School in December 2006.
Within a few months, she started a sexual relationship with a 14-year-old student, according to an arrest report. During the same year, she pursued a second relationship with a 15-year-old student, the report said.
Ragusa received a letter from school officials in January, reprimanding her for using profanity while speaking to students and sharing with them what she did over the weekend.
"Your actions continue to be of concern, and have been determined to be a pattern of behavior that demonstrates a loss of effectiveness," wrote Linda Kipley, general manager of professional standards. Kipley put Ragusa on notice: any more problems and she would be terminated.
The next month, Ragusa took a leave of absence. She told one of the boys she was accused of having sex with that it was for medical reasons, records show.
Personal Turmoil
Ragusa's personal life appeared equally chaotic.
She filed a petition in September 2006 for a temporary injunction against Zak. She wrote in court records that the pair broke up in May 2006, but that he wanted to get back together.
Ragusa accused Zak of leaving messages on her telephone in which he threatened to physically harm her. Zak also made threats to "blackmail" her by giving incriminating information about her to her bosses or authorities, she said in court documents.
The case was dismissed after Ragusa missed court appearances. She wrote that she was unable to attend hearings because of her school schedule.
A year later, Ragusa won a petition preventing her current boyfriend, 26-year-old Tony Irvin, from having contact or coming within 500 feet of her.
After winning the petition, though, Ragusa called and repeatedly sent text messages to him, Irvin said in court records. He pleaded not guilty to battery domestic violence. The case was later dismissed.
On Ragusa's Reunion.com profile, when asked what she thought she would be doing 10 years from now, she wrote on June 12: "I am way too old to be saying this, but I don't know. I hope I have a family as wonderful as the one I grew up in."