Feb 23 Update: The reason I didn't post this week was because I was fighting off bacterial pneumonia -- fluid in the lungs is not your friend.

No good reason for missing last week.

I can't exactly call him an old friend, because we were never friends. Even besides his being two years older than me, he was a pompous ass. We were in band together in high school and he was the prima donna (can you use that term with a man?) of the organization.

Skilled with many instruments! Capable of spinning a wooden rifle fifty feet into the air and catching it without missing a beat! And boy did he know it.

Okay, I didn't like the fellow. I was in my Serious Geek phase and outside of music, our two worlds were in completely different orbits. But when I heard about his conviction, I felt sad. Sad for him.

I feel bad for the girl, of course. No matter how mature a 15-year-old feels (and I recall being 15. I felt plenty mature.), there are reasons this sort of thing is illegal.

But I also feel bad for him.

He's been a teacher for the past twelve years. His certificate has been pulled and he will never work in his chosen field again. I'm sure that although his wife publicly supported him in court, things will never be quite the same between them again.

Before the flood of angry emails comes my way, I do think he deserved what he got, just as he deserves the jail time he will have to experience once he is sentenced. That doesn't mean I can't or shouldn't feel sad about whatever forces worked within him to put him in this place.

I can kind of understand what happened. A teacher, working with nubile young things day-in, day-out, must be tempted sometimes. By reports, he was having difficulty setting the proper boundaries between himself and his students, treating them like peers. That I can understand. High school was his real glory time, and he was the kind of fellow who would have trouble giving that up.

But this happens so often though, that it makes me wonder what's going on. I mean come on, on January 5, The Smoking Gun published the mug shot of the year's first sex-with-student arrestee, a 40-year-old woman in Kansas who did it with a 16-year-old boy. And run the search on their site for dozens more from previous years.

It's so prevalent that even the stories of kids making stuff up for attention or money are commonplace these days. Another band instructor from my youth was charged with sexual assault and found not guilty a few years ago, and there was suspicion of extortion on the part of the kid. The teacher still had to give up his teaching career and spent years rebuilding his music career. But when we hear about such a tale, we are almost blas‚ about it, just another one in a series.

What is going on? Teacher and student, student and teacher. Why can't some people resist taking that step? I will never fault a person for the fantasies in their head, but when they start trying to make them real....

I don't understand. The majority of teachers have that little alarm in their heads, the one that says 'Warning! Lolita alert!' when they are getting too close to their students. But some just seem to miss it, to make students their friends, their buddies. And that leaves a tiny step left to go over the line into betrayal of trust.

Maybe it's more like a disability. Something is wrong with them, something is missing. Like a very specific form of schizophrenia, where all that is wrong is a blurring of distinctions between 'Hands off!' and 'Whoopee!'. Like how some scientists feel that addictions have some connection to your genetic makeup, that you are an addictive person, just waiting for the right vice to capture your brain. When more is missing, when the ability to recognize a willing partner is also gone, then they take that extra step into predation.

Or maybe it's something else. Maybe the times are changing, the kids are different, and it's more difficult for people to make the distinction between adult and youth. After all, a lot of these kids work damn hard to be just like adults in every way. Adult clothes, adult attitudes, a whole level of sophistication unlike ever before in modern history. It's scary.

Don't get me wrong. We should still keep people who do this away from our kids - despite what we learned from Cheers, you don't let the alcoholic work the bar. But I really think there is more to this whole disturbing trend than anyone is seeing.

Right now teachers are taught proper attitudes and the methods to keep from getting too close to their students. Ethical courses are part of the regular curriculum every teacher must take to get their degree. Schools screen new teachers. Parent groups and school boards are ever vigilant for the slightest taint of predation.

Despite it all, incidents of teachers hooking up with students appear to be increasing. Someone needs to find out what is going on and find out how to fix it before more people get hurt. Something more needs to be done to help the teachers before they take that last step. Something to help prevent them from destroying lives - both theirs and their students.

Previous

Main

Next

Trackback Pings

TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://whatisaw.wiredweirdness.com/cgi-bin/mt/mt-tb.cgi/607

Listed below are links to weblogs that reference The Lure of the Young:

» The Lure of the Young from 8-Track Mind
Thoughts on a recent conviction of an old school mate for sexual exploitation. I don't know if I made my point clearly, but it's there for your reading. Feel free to discuss amongst yourselves.... [Read More]

Tracked on February 8, 2006 02:55 PM