Junior high teacher accused of having sex with former students

A southwest suburban junior high school teacher charged with having sex with former students was ordered held on a $150,000 bond Friday.

Cara Labus, 30, is charged with four counts of aggravated criminal sexual abuse for incidents involving two victims between ages 14 and 16, according to the Cook County state’s attorney’s office.

Labus met the victims while she was a teacher and basketball coach at Jerling Junior High School in Orland Park, prosecutors claim.

She kept in contact with them after they graduated, and allegedly engaged in various sex acts with the teens from December 2008 through February 2011, prosecutors claim.

One of the victims told a friend and filed a police report last December, around the same time the victims told each other about the alleged abuse, police said.

Labus, of Joliet, is currently employed at Hufford Junior High School in Joliet, the state’s attorney’s office said.

She was arrested Wednesday, and ordered held on a $150,000 bond at a hearing Friday before Judge Kerry Kennedy at the Bridgeview courthouse, authorities said.

Labus was also placed on electronic home monitoring, and may not have contact with either victim or anyone under 18 unless supervised. She will next appear in court Feb. 23, the state’s attorney’s office said.