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March 04, 2005
Teacher sex scandals come to West Virginia
As of this writing, I don't have a link ([Update: I have a link now, thanks to Say Anything), but according to the radio news and the local radio talk show, a teacher in Braxton County has been charged with sexually abusing several of her students.
There have been comments made on the radio that the complaints about this behavior came out only after the kids saw the other teachers who were behaving in this way, and that they were upset that the other "victims" were having sex with hotter teachers.
That's just stupid, in my opinion. I do think that some of these things are coming out as a result of the other stories in the news, but it's probably a result of the victims realizing they're not alone. When they see that it's not just them, they're more likely to come forward.
Even if the teacher is attractive, the fact that teenage boys are essentially just walking hormones doesn't excuse these crimes. The entire reason we have statutory rape laws is because we as a society agree that these children are too young to make informed decisions about sex. The genders don't matter (how many people would say that an attractive male teacher having sex with a female student wasn't really doing anything wrong), and the attractiveness of the teacher in question doesn't matter.
(Interesting side note: According to the talk radio station I listen to, the statutory rape laws in West Virginia say that it's illegal to have sex with anyone under the age of sixteen if you're at least four years older than them and you're not married to them.)
I have to wonder when the lawsuits will start. Teachers have a position that involves as much trust as a Catholic priest, and the government forces them on our children. Whether there is really an upswing in the number of these incidents, or if it's just getting reported more readily now because of all the press, I think we need to do something to help protect the children.
Posted by Robin S. at March 4, 2005 05:35 PM
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