Teacher Scandals

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In Massachusetts recently there has been two teachers arrested for inappropriate behavior with a minor. One of the teachers is charged with showing pictures of his genitals to two teenage girls and the other is charged with raping a minor.

On my local Internet news outlet I was able to read the story as well as people's commentary about the article. One local person felt that this was a race issue, not a sex crime issue. This person was shot down by most everyone who posted afterwards. As one poster put it “Get over yourself.......the issue isn't what color the person was who got caught but the fact that someone's daughter and/or sister is safe!!” There were many people who posted humorous comments like, “the paper said he had a picture of his penis on his cell phone.....doesn't everyone? Joking”

The most surprising comments were made by the recently graduated, “There is so many versions of the story. Students say a girl grabbed his cell phone and wanted to see his pictures he told her to not go threw his phone give the phone back but it was too late. She should have never been going threw his phone if that something she didn't want to see. I was recently in high school and I am sorry I wouldn't have cared if I saw that big deal it's life and if a parent wants a child in a sheltered unrealistic life than they should have sent her to a private high school. Life is all about things like this, just prepared her for the real world. On the Peterson comment he's married and has a child so def. not a relevant comment to present day.” Once you have read the post a few times you should be able to get the gist of what she is trying to say. There are many issues with punctuation or the lack there of, as well as grammar and spelling errors, but we must remind ourselves that she is a product of public schools and is possibly only in her first year of college, if she goes at all.

What I want to know is, what kind of world does this girl live in! She says it's no big deal and it's life. What part of a normal person's life included their teachers genitals? I'd also like to know how it is an unrealistic life to expect NOT to see your teachers genitals? And seeing your teacher's genitals is preparing her for the real world? How is that?!

Another comment that also came from a recent graduate, “I was a student of Beaudry and he is a really cool, down to earth guy..so for people to make these assumptions before they know him is a little messed up. He's definitely not a pervert. Those girls shouldn't have been snooping on his phone. So what if he had inappropriate pics on his phone. I could see if the pics were of underage girls, but they weren't, so what's the big deal? I bet you 75% of boys at the high school have inappropriate pictures on their phones so looks like everyone who brings their phone to school is dumb. I really don't think all these consequences should have happened for something that really isn't that big of a deal. These girls obviously wanted attention.”

Here we have a teenager BLAMING the female victims for the sexual offense. Does this not remind you of the mentality of the rape victim being at fault for the rape because she wanted attention, the proof was her style of dress, the way she walked, where she was at the time. We also have here a case where this student believes that approximately 755 of the boys at her school have sexually inappropriate photo's on their phones. We've all heard the stories in the news reminding teenage girls that if they text images those images can end up on the Internet. Most of the images were texted to their male “friends” in these stories.

How can we as parents protect our children from predatory teachers? Should we as parents be sending our children into the schools knowing that there is a possibility that they will be assaulted by a teacher? There were 479 cases in 2008 of sexual assault by teachers. Already in 2009 there have been 44 teacher scandals in the US. At the time of this writing, for the month of January 41 and 3 for February. If the scandals continue at the same rate for this year there will be an increase to 492 assaults. That's 1.3 reports per day.

Statistics from the website National Online Resource Center on Violence Against Women which gives the Worldwide Sexual Assault Statistics.

The same website gives us these statistics:

The cavalier attitude of these teenagers towards sex doesn't give heart to women's sexual rights. And we can see that this is a world issue. If the attitude of the teens stated above is prominent then we also have to wonder how many of these assaults are perpetrated and not reported. How many times has the teacher in Holyoke shown pictures of his genitals to girls and to have the girls say that it's just a fact of life and no big deal. Maybe it is because he has gotten away with it for so long that he feels he can continue. Few criminals ever get caught the first time they commit a crime.

According to one statistic 3-10 assaults are not reported for every 1 that is. That's a possibility of 1437 to 4790 teacher assaults in 2008 alone. With the numbers of assaults growing and with more and more teenagers not thinking it a big deal to be assaulted by a teacher we can only expect the numbers to go up.

When listening to a radio show, WRKO Howie Carr Show, there was a caller who was a father of a teen. He said he would be okay with his son having sex with a teacher. He felt it would give him more status with his friends and it would give him sexual experience. My own daughter had a friend at school who was “dating” a boy. Her boyfriend asked his father when he could start having sex with the girlfriend. And the father told him that he couldn't have sex with her until she had started her period. These kids were 11 years old at the time and the girl had not started her period. But there are girls who start as young as 8 years old.

The solutions to this problem can only be accomplished if all parents, with the schools reinforcement, to abstain from sex until marriage, make their children dress modestly and monitor the images on their children's cell phones.

How many parents are willing to do this for their children? Schools are giving out condoms and in some states providing transportation to abortion clinics. Parents are telling their children that at 12 they can start having sex. With mentalities like that we will see only increases in teen pregnancy and teen abortions.