Educator Sexual Misconduct (Student-Teacher Relationships)

Teach Me by R. A. Nelson

http://www.amazon.com/dp/1595140859/?tag=absowrit-20

The Smoking Gun has a lot of court documents about inappropirate student/teacher relationships that might prove helpful. I can't seem to get their search function to work but you could try looking in their documents section under the following categories: K-12, Sex, Crime. (Their filing seems a little random.) Here's a couple I found with a quick look: 1 | 2.

Cheers.

Don't forget to see if there are any books on the abuse in the Catholic church. It obviously doesn't involve teachers, but may be similar because it involves an adult and a child. Plus, look for any books written about the woman who seduced a boy and had his child--can't think of her name, but she's serving time in prison for it.

You may be talking about Mary Kay Letourneau, who had sex with a twelve-year-old boy, went to jail, had a baby in jail, was released, was found having sex with the boy again within two weeks, went to jail again, had a baby in jail again, was released again, and then married him in a ceremony breathlessly covered by Entertainment Weekly, because nothing says grand romance like second-degree child rape.

Personal Anecdote: As told to me by a friend (I didn't know her at the time this took place)
Her teacher dated her friend. They broke up. She actively pursued her teacher making her intentions very clear. She dated him for almost a year before breaking it off. Apparently he was too needy. Her story did not equate with the typical 'victim' stereotype. She was adamant she was in control and although in hindsight she concedes his actions were inappropriate for someone in his postion she maintains that she is none the worse for the experience.

Situation in my state: (I live in Australia.) Teachers have a legal requirement to report any suspected cases of child abuse. These may be reported directly to police but often are reported to School Welfare staff for further investigation before involving Child Protection Authorities or Police.

A few years ago there were a number of high profile court cases. What was particularly interesting was the way teen victims were portrayed depending on gender. Girls were seen as victims while boys were applauded for their 'Mrs Robinson' moment. (These are broad generalisations and much heated debate took place.)

A book from a few years ago that explored the issue was Boy Toy by Barry Lyga - told from the POV of a 17 year old boy, reflecting on events from when he was 12, caused by the impending release from prison of the female teacher who was convicted of abusing him.

~suki

What age range? I have some anecdotal stuff leftover from my university and college observations.

My school board doesn't have a policy on what to do if something like that happened, but there's a definite rule that it MUST NOT HAPPEN. We have a similar rule about mandatory reporting of child abuse (this is in Ontario, Canada), but it's only for kids under 16, and it's got to be 'reason to believe', not just a stupid rumor. As a teacher, if I had reason to believe that one of my colleagues was involved with a student, I would ask the colleague for an explanation of whatever had caused my suspicion, and if I wasn't 100% satisfied, I would call Child and Family Services. I would also get my union rep and have her go to the principal with me to discuss the situation.

I think it's interesting how many kids seem to think that coming on to a teacher is a good idea. We have a LOT of female students who flirt with our young male teachers, quite openly. Of course, I have no way of knowing whether they would keep it up if the teacher actually expressed an interest. With male students, there's a bit of attempted flirting, but they really aren't as persistent as the girls. I think the girls think that there's really a chance that something might happen, while the boys are mostly just joking around.

Notes on a Scandal by Zoe Heller might be one to read. There's a film adaptation starring Dame Judi Dench. The novel is set in the UK and it’s about a female teacher who has an affair with a fifteen year old male student. The book is narrated by a friend of the teacher, who is also a teacher and a little bit nutty.

I wrote about this type of thing in my young adult novel. I also had the teacher get into a fight with the teenaged boy who bothers this girl who has the crush on the teacher.

What I did was I went to our local high school and interviewed the principal. I figured he would know what the rules/penalties would be.

Jamie Stone said:

Thanks for the recommendations, guys!

The age range is 16 y.o. high school girl, ~50 y.o male teacher.

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Hmm. Reminds me of Vladimir Nabokov's Lolita.

What you will find...

is that the school, and ed authorities, will if they can, hush it up. Like the Catholic church did, you will find that teachers (usually male) are removed to another school. This is done by giving them a good reference and telling them to go. This is most often done in the case of the older male who likes flirting with and chasing up sexy teenage pupils who don't mind or make fun of or even enjoy his attentions, which don't often go beyond touching and the odd kiss.

The real pedophiles are hell to uncover as they have such a hold over their victims it's hard to get the facts. The victims are either scared stiff or so enamoured they won't talk.

Mebbe read up on the Satch Carlson case in Anchorage, late 90s.
Age of consent 16 in AK; she was 17; later AK wrote a "position of authority" law that increased age of consent if one party had a position of authority over the other. Creepy bit about dismissal sans reporting initially.

pdr said:

is that the school, and ed authorities, will if they can, hush it up.

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I don't think that this is true, at least where I work, and my jurisdiction has a very strong teachers' union that would usually get in the way of any discipline against teachers. Our Director of Education is notorious for giving a speech each year welcoming new teachers by saying that they have a lot of job security and the Board wants to help them get through any troubles they experience and become better teachers (read as: union won't let them fire anybody), but she always gives one clear warning: touch a student and you are GONE. And I know school admin. has heard that message crystal-clear.

The union contributes to a unified front on the issue. They'll help mount a legal defense if criminal charges are brought, but in terms of going back to the classroom - our union president's line is that if either your judgment or your self-control is that poor, you should be looking for another profession.

I think there was a time when this sort of thing was hushed up, but in my jurisdiction at least, that time is CLEARLY over.

Personal anecdotes, you say?

In my senior year of high school (early 90s), 3 teachers were fired/resigned because of inappropriate contact with students. All in a single school year. All 3 teachers were male, all coaches. I think being a coach (or heavily involved with students outside of the structured school day) definitely gives the teacher and student access and opportunity.

This was a very big deal, locally, when it happened (to the school board's dismay, we even got a bit of national news coverage).

One of the cases was a consensual relationship -- and really, really messy. Teacher was married, with a daughter in college, and he ran off with the student the day she turned 18. The parents threatened legal action against the school. Very, very messy.

The other coaches were fired or forced to resign because of inappropriate physical contact in the classroom (not consensual). Tell me how stupid you have to be to kiss a student in class?

This was in a fairly small town -- we had under 200 kids in our class. On a sad note, we also had 2 student deaths that year. It was an incredibly stressful, surreal senior year.

I'd be glad to answer any specific questions you have. Like I said, I'm from a pretty small town, so everybody knew pretty much everything that went on.

Damn Jilly, your senior year sounds like a great novel on its own! Write that puppy!

How nice to hear...

things have tightened up in N. America. But being strict about touching is not the same as weeding out the men who pick out and verbally harass girl students, on a one to one basis. Nor does it stop the harden pedophile who has more whiles and tricks than a school board can cover. And the aging male teachers who like nubile teenage girls have a host of tricks to separate a victim out and make her feel special.

This sort of behaviour is very hard to pin down precisely and prosecute. Often parents protect their abused daughter from publicity and prefer to move her. Schools don't want a bad name and union problems from a dicey prosecution. These men still get booted from school to school.

pdr said:

things have tightened up in N. America. But being strict about touching is not the same as weeding out the men who pick out and verbally harass girl students, on a one to one basis. Nor does it stop the harden pedophile who has more whiles and tricks than a school board can cover. And the aging male teachers who like nubile teenage girls have a host of tricks to separate a victim out and make her feel special.

This sort of behaviour is very hard to pin down precisely and prosecute. Often parents protect their abused daughter from publicity and prefer to move her. Schools don't want a bad name and union problems from a dicey prosecution. These men still get booted from school to school.

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Can you back this up with any more than statements? Like, evidence? I mean, I hear what you're saying about it being hard to catch people if the victims won't report the crime, so fair enough - neither you nor I really has a firm handle on how many unreported cases there are. You think there are a lot. I get that.

But when you say things like "Schools don't want a bad name and union problems," - what are you basing that on? Is it just a feeling you have? If it's more than that - what is your evidence?

The evidence?

Not in the USA.

Personal involvement in several tricky cases, only one of which got to court and was thrown out.

I'm not sure if this is what you are after. It was a UK case over a year ago - a teacher was jailed for having a lesbian affair with a pupil: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/crime/article6842888.ece

There is also the Journal of Child Sex Abuse
http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/title~content=t792303988~link=cover

That is such a wrong title!