Predatory Women Teachers
March 9, 2009 / 8:11 am • By Dr. Melissa ClouthierSo, last week Drudge puts up a link to a story about two different women teachers having sex with a 13 year old boy student unbeknown to one another. Nice. Why can’t crazy women just be strippers and prostitutes? Now, they’re foisting their antisocial behavior on children.
A couple thoughts:
1. Yes, society is degrading. What used to be unthinkable has become rather common place.
2. Critics of home schooling, due to the fact that the kids may be in a “dangerous environment”, need to put a cork in it.
3. Critics of the Catholic Church need to be morally consistent. Where is the outrage over this abuse? All indicators point to a systemic failure for the education system to keep children safe. This is a little addendum at the end of the article:
Recent cases
Since 2007, at least 10 other Utah teachers or school employees have been charged with engaging in sexual acts with students. Among recent cases:
In November 2007, Frank Laine Hall, 37, was sentenced to prison for molesting 11 of his first-grade students at Rosamond Elementary School in Riverton.
Also in 2007, former West High School guidance counselor Marco R. Herrera, 53, received three consecutive one-to-15 year prison terms for engaging in sexual acts with a 14-year-old girl at least 10 times. An honors teacher at the same school was charged in 2008 with multiple counts of having sex with the same girl; his case is pending.
This is just in Utah. There are stories like this every day. Here’s one from Houston. But when I did a search, multiple cases came up. Here’s a complete list. And this is just the women.
Where is the Teacher’s Union? Where are the huge settlements from school systems for providing unsafe environments? Why are schools given an exemption from the expectation that children should be safe?
Evidently, there is a taboo bigger than sexual abuse and assault: Thou Shalt Not Put Teachers In A Bad Light.
Cross-posted at RightWingNews
7 Responses to “Predatory Women Teachers”
March 9 2009 / 8:50 am
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This isn’t *new*s. I remember back when I was in Jr. High, one of the teachers seemed a little “odd”. I was never on the list of those who was invited to “private tutoring sessions” with him, however I heard years later that some of those who were, got lessons their parents weren’t expecting.
Of course, go back and read ancient Greek history, and you will find out that student-teacher “relations” were common back then, as well.
~EdT.
March 9 2009 / 8:52 am
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In olden days, 1973, we had a student teacher date a senior girl. Other than that, any sort of teacher/student relationship was unthinkable. Mostly, to be honest, because teachers are O-L-D.
The sexualizing of our teens and the lack of responsibility demanded on both teens and adults by society are the root causes of this problem. How do we fix it? Damifino.
Maybe we need blunt talk to teens and to teachers. The kind of talk that parents and teachers routinely object to.
March 9 2009 / 9:20 am
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i agree – this isn’t new, just finally starting to get some recognition (much like child abuse, sexual abuse, etc.). in our parents’ time, abuse wasn’t discussed – hushed and glossed over. fraternization between teachers and students was gossiped and laughed about behind closed doors during my time. now, finally, they are finally doing something about it. i can think of several examples, including a teacher in seventh grade that routinely brushed against us girls, dropped our purses from our desks so we had to bend over if our shirts would open a bit – pervert! – and a music teacher that pretty much required some kind of contact with “his” girls if you wanted in the concert group. that is just a couple of several stories i knew of. we just didn’t know any better and parents didn’t have the sense that there was something that could/should be done and there wasn’t media outrage. of course, we were just being enlighted about sexual harassment in the work place at that time, too; only makes sense that with doors opening about abuse, harassment, that finally recognition of school antics would follow.
March 9 2009 / 10:50 am
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I am shocked as I read through some of these profiles and look at the photos. Some of them look like they are troubled. Others, however, look so normal, intelligent, and nice that you would never think they would engage in sexual activity with children. Why would these women take such chances?
One thing is for sure, I will not hesitate for one moment to have some straight talks with my children about this sort of happenings. Not for one moment will I hesitate!
March 9 2009 / 1:26 pm
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I suspect this has its roots in the old learned survival traits that cause those in power to propogate their seed as widely as possible. Doesn’t quite explain *why* women teachers are getting caught up in this (as according to this line of theorizing, they are the *weaker* gender), but again this seems to be much more common historically than we are being led to believe (which *doesn’t* make it any more acceptable, btw.)
How do we fix this? I suspect the solution will have to do with (1) helping people to understand that which drives this type of behavior, so that they recognize it, and (2) convincing them that they can control these impulses. A bit of (3) accountability, along with (4) parents taking their children seriously when this type of thing is reported, would also help.
~EdT.
March 9 2009 / 10:10 pm
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Does anybody remember “A Streetcar Named Desire”? The reason the Blanche DuBois character was fired from her teaching job was because she had sexual relations with a student.
The difference now is that it’s becoming socially acceptable.
March 9 2009 / 11:17 pm
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We had a gym teacher in high school who was overly friendly to some of the girls.
Then one day, after I had graduated, the teacher chased his wife out into the front yard during a fight and split her head in two with an axe.