How old were you?

"by the time the students were in the last year at our school, a lot of us would sometimes see teachers out at the pub or something & the general teacher-student relationship was a lot less formal "

Am I understanding this correctly? You were in secondary school?

You may have had a crush, as we all have... but the behaviour of the teachers was absolutely horrible, no honorable teacher would hang out with underage students at a pub, for any reason.

I may not be clear on what's going on, but I'd run away from this as soon as possible, it just doesn't sound healthy. 

Are there any LBGT groups or centers, activities,  near by where you can talk and meet people, make friends...and maybe meet someone?

From your profile I see that you're 22 and if I understand you correctly she was your PE teacher years ago? There was nothing "fishy" going on when she was your teacher, except the fact that you liked her.

So I would say that there is nothing wrong if two people develop a friendship, fall in love(?) and start dating years after they met in school. She didn't take advangate of you when she was your teacher. And the age dosn't really matter, does it?

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"We're in love. W-we're lovers. We're lesbian, gay-type lovers" - Willow

I can't offer anything on the actual is there/isn't there something between you and her situation, but in regards to the whole former pupil/former teacher thing:

When I was at school, there was a young-ish, male teacher who was married to a former student. Now the thing is, this former student had been one of his students, ie was actually in his classes, and on top of that, they got married the year after she left school. It always sounded a lil fishy to me, but that's just school-yard gossip and rumour - they may have just formed a fast, adult bond outside of school and been blissfully in love and it all was 'above board', I don't know.

So the point I'm really making is, a teacher/former pupil pairing would probably raise some speculation, not necessarily dark and dire, but at least some. I think you said you're 4/5 years out of school, so in my opinion that wouldn't exactly ring the same alarm bells as the situation i described, but still potentially would be something to handle with a bit of care

I would think that you would need to first confirm whether or not she is gay. After all, this may all be for not if she is hetero or in a relationship with someone else. Second, does she know YOU are gay? Has the gay topic ever come up in conversation? Once both of your sexualities are established, then you can start asking the questions you raised in your post.

That said, I wouldn't worry too much about the past or others' perceptions of the situation. If you are both willing to date, well, I don't see an issue.

One question, how is it that after years of maintaining a friendship the topic of relationships (generally speaking) has never come up? Just seems a little wierd to me.

I personally do not find anything wrong with the situation of being friend's with a teacher.  Like you, I had a wonderful PE teacher that I completely adored in high school.  We talked about sports, life, and she and I would battle each other in the tennis courts--she always won.  She was young, fun, gorgeous (but married) and a fantastic listener.  I really connected with her and for the first time in my days in school, I felt like a teacher really cared about her students and me.  When in class during down time she would allow me to express myself and I know she saw me as lost in many respects but she was very caring and supportive.  When I graduated, I would visit her and the other gym teacher when I had a break from college and would catch up with her.  Unfortunately, she had a baby (which I'm very happy for her) and decided not to teach afterwards (she had a miscarriage a year before).  I still think about her often.

I do not see any harm at all in having a connection with your former teacher now friend.  You are a grown woman and ten years is NOT a big deal in my opinion and the lines aren't necessarily blurred as they would have been if you were still in high school. 

My advice is to see where it can lead.  There is potential for you having a relationship that is something deeper then friendship if you want that.  I am someone that believes everything happens for a reason and there is probably a solid reason that she's back in your life.  If you're still confused if this is still a childhood fantasy/crush then let it play out.  There's nothing wrong with having a good friend even if that's all you will remain.  Try to remain patient, feel out your conversations and wait to make a judgement when you start getting into more personal talks.

I also spent time with some of my favorite teachers at that age. It was usually at pizza places, games, that sort of thing, and it was usually in groups. Ex-teachers, age difference, that's no problem.

My concern is with the character of this particular teacher, did she meet you at a pub when you were underage?? Were drinks served?  It's not clear. But if so, this is not a good person.

If I may speculate... And I may 

Rosso Neri uses the word secondary school, so I would assume she's not from US. Maybe UK? And it's not problematic for most europeans to meet in a pub. Even underage people meet up in bars. It's a culture thing, and you don't have to drink if you go to a pub.

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"We're in love. W-we're lovers. We're lesbian, gay-type lovers" - Willow

Ahhh One of my first Ever Crushes was on my PE teacher, Shes A Dyke too i saw her in a gay bar in london a few days after i turned 18. was awkward. Still Smoking Hot though, anyway, My Lesbian best friend And her Hit it off and Have daited since..

My main problem With you're post is that You dont say if you think shes into YOU or not. If so Go for it, You're 22 now its not Like you're still in school or anything Youre an adult so its fine for you too to date. however it may have an Negative effect on her Job.. 

" i *Heart* Oy oy lady"

Yep I'm from the UK...so the drinking laws are all legal from 18 & you can be in bars/pubs under 18 depending on the situation, certainly I was always allowed to have wine with a meal from about the age of 15 if I was with my parents. But then there's pretty much an attitude here of underage drinking being relatively ok (not saying that's a good thing as such but here you kind of expect to see 16/17 year olds trying to get into pubs & trying to get served etc. Nowadays, it's probably gone even younger cos I regularly see 14 & 15 year olds drinking & trying to buy drinks...it's kind of depressing now. Anyway, certainly that was part of a "game" when I was 16/17, the let's see who can get served easiest game)

Also just to say, when I said we'd meet our teachers at pubs & such it wasn't like we had intentionally gone out to meet them there or arranged anything with them. It was more a case of me & my friends arranging within ourselves to go to a pub & them just happening to be there too. Sometimes they'd make us all leave & go home since they knew we were 17 or whatever, sometimes they'd just make sure we weren't drinking alcohol, & sometimes they'd just turn a blind eye to us & let us continue on as we were so long as we didn't cause a ruckus or get out of hand or something, as I said underage drinking in the UK is treated rather differently to most other places I've ever been. Certainly it was never a case of my teacher specifically taking me out & buying me a drink (at least not whilst I was at school anyway). In fact I just want to make it triply clear that NOTHING untoward/inappropriate ever happened or potentially happened whilst I was still a student. Really it's only since I finished Uni & came back home that I've felt that there's been a shift in our friendship that could be leading towards something more.

To answer some other questions in some of the comments, yes she knows that I'm gay, well bisexual at least, since I've mentioned in passing that I've had both boyfriends & girlfriends (in each case it was in a long term, monogamous capacity I might just add) though I am now single & have been for the last year or so (which she also knows). I'm pretty open about all that since all my friends know, my parents know etc etc. The thing about her not mentioning anything with regards to her own relationships, I was never sure if she was just being private about things, or that she didn't want to tell me something or simply that she just didn't have anything to tell me. That really is one thing that still confuses me about her & I'm really tempted to just come right out & ask her plainly since she really does give off the gayest vibe I've ever known, it's almost every stereotype you can think of, she fulfills. Then again she is also quite a shy person in general, quite introverted in some ways.

Also as I said just now, it's only really in the last year since I've come back from Uni that things seemed to have begun to shift a bit, she's asking me out to lunch more, there are generally a lot more times we get together & have coffee & just chat about things, we've started having dinners & going out on what you could consider to be dates though neither of us have ever said anything about it being a date or something like that. And all of these tend to be initiated by her since I don't want to push my luck or anything. I guess part of me is just worried that if we were to do anything together I don't know what I could offer to the relationship since I'm only just getting started in "real life", I worry about what she could possibly want with me since she has a perfectly good career, a great life & there's nothing that I can see me adding to it other than to potentially mess with her career if people think dodgy things happened whilst I was at school (which I cannot stress enough that nothing happened back then) but then I could just be having massive self-doubt issues here...I'm also doubting my own thoughts & interpretations of events since I know that I had a crush on her back in school so what if she is simply just being a good friend & I'm reading into it all too much & seeing things & interpreting things in ways they weren't intended by her. That's partly the reason I let her initiate meetings & "dates" since I'm not too sure what she intends as of yet & I don't want to just come out & ask it plainly incase I've got it all wrong.

From my point of view she certainly seems interested in me & we are meeting up now most days of the week whether it be lunch or dinner or something...I'm just wondering how far it could go & whether I should let it go that far if it were an option.

Thanks for all the comments by the way!