NEW YORK: Incidents of female teachers having sex with teenage students seem to be on the rise in the US, with the latest being that of a 27-year-old woman who has been arrested for allegedly making love with a 16-year-old pupil in her car.

Ashley Blumenshine [pictured] was held behind a department store in Plainfield, Illinois, after police caught her in a car with the teenage student; cops believe they had sex shortly before the officers arrived, the Daily Mail online reported.

The dance and physical education teacher at Plainfield North High School is being held in custody charged with having sex with the student, a junior at the school. Her attorney has said that the unmarried teacher is innocent.

Will county state attorney’s assistant Mary Fillipitch has said that both occupants admitted they had just engaged in consensual sexual intercourse. A condom was taken as evidence from the vehicle, the report said.

Blumenshine’s just the latest scandal. Jennifer Riojas, 27, a teacher in Texas, was pregnant when arrested for sexual assault in November after allegedly having sex with a student, 16, in motels.

Similarly, social studies teacher Megan Baumann, 27, pleaded guilty to texting naked photos to three male students in Tennessee.

Another 40-year-old dance teacher Gina Watring of North Carolina is serving a five-year jail term after pleading guilty in September to having sex with a 10-year-old student.

Carlie Rose Attebury, 31, who was a teacher in California, was convicted in November for having sex with a student under 16.

Marcie Rousseau, who was 33 and married when charged, is being tried for allegedly having sex with a student on five occasions. The 17-year-old testified that Rousseau told him she loved him, too, when he was 16.