As a former public educator, I am shocked at the seeming abundance of teacher-pupil sex crimes lately. Fifteen other states are considering stronger penalties, and I wonder if we should also? Should Idaho preemptively change some laws to catch this problem before it becomes a problem? Is Idaho tough enough on teacher sex crimes?
Should Idaho create a hotline for reporting suspected teacher-pupil abuses?
Should Idaho require immediate and automatic suspension of the teaching certificate, instead of possible suspension after hearings and process?
Should Idaho share the names of convicted teacher sex offenders with other states?
Should Idaho increase the penalties for teacher sex offenders?
Should Idaho increase the penalties for public school officials who quietly dismiss the teacher and fail to report the crime to all the proper official channels?
Should Idaho grant immunity to public school officials who proactively bring incidents to the attention of all proper official channels?
What do you think?
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{ 8 comments… read them below or add one }
Yes to all above.
I remember as a high school student how odd it seemed in a small Idaho town near here that a Social Studies married a student within days of her graduation. In hindsight its pretty obvious what happened and that teacher should have rotted in prison. But being a small town I guess no one wanted to rock the boat.
Every possible method should be used to stop teacher molestations.
I support all of these proposals, but if we have automatic and immediate suspension of the teacher and their certificate before due process, I think we owe it to legitimate teachers to put them on paid administrative leave. Their pay is small now, the honest ones should not have to put up with their pay getting shrunk by the inevitable punk kid making false accusations against the teacher they don’t like.
For certain teachers should be paid during the investigation in case the claims are false. And if the claims are deemed to false then the students making such claims should be punished to the maximum extent of the law and they should be expelled.
There was a case just in the last few months here in the US. A couple of students were mad at a male teacher so those students created a fake myspace page using the teachers yearbook photo. They made him look like a pedophile and put all kind of nasty things up. The teachers reputation was destroyed because even though the truth did come out you can’t put those kind of claims back in the bottle. The students were suspended but now the school district is being sued by the parents for excessive punishments. Personally I think permanent expulsion would be too kind for those students and I’m not sure what if any criminal charges would apply but they should be definitely considered.
While I think teachers that “molest” students should have all the above penalties and more thrown at them, I think that too much is made of those cases where it was consensual. While I think that teachers should not take advantage of students in this way, I do think that if a person is a Jr or Sr (17 or 18 years of age), & if it was consensual, like it has been in many cases acrosss the country, I don’t think any issue should be made of it. At 17 or 18 y/o, you’re old enough to consent to relations of this sort and it’s not “molestation” if both parties are willing.
At 16,17, 18 y/o, it’s every boys fantasy to “have relations” with a good looking teacher. There’s not one man here that can dispute that. And if you do, you’re a liar.
Sure, impose harsher penalties in instances where it’s warranted. But in cases where its consensual, leave it be. It may not be the wisest decision in the world and a teacher should know better, but in my opinion, there should be no penalties when its consensual and nobody is hurt or negatively affected by it.
I can think back to High School and note some teachers that were nice looking. I can recall how at that age young boys (myself included) would have thought it “cool” to hook up with a teacher. Looking back it though, I think I might have been scarred in some unknown psychological way. Thanks goodness I never had to find out.
It is important to note that this is not an appropriate use of authority or position to cultivate relationships in school. Would we want school bus drivers or school resource officers to hook up with students aged 17 to 18? IMO, absolutely not.
What we also neglect to look at is the fact that these types of relationships usually fail and can be a BIG distraction to both parties. Can you imagine hooking up with a teacher in your Junior year….having the relationship go south and all the gossip swirling around? The teacher would not be able to effectively teach in the school. The student might very well be so embarrassed that they would have to possibly drop out or transfer.
What kind of example do we want teachers to set? Do we want them to exhibit impulsive behavior(s)? Do we want them to exhibit fornication outside of marriage? (I know that is a stretch for some…..but after all, it is a public institution….they want to keep God out of the public schools…..why not keep teachers out of the pants of students!!!)
Actually most of the cases I have seen recently involve 14 year old kids, not 17 year olds. I can agree with some lenience in the case of an 18 year old with a 17 year old, I cannot agree with a 30 year old teacher and a 17 year old student. It becomes a slippery slope after that, do we not prosecute for 17 year olds, 16 year olds, 15.2 year olds?
These are teachers and are supposed to be professionals. Teachers can lose their certification for any inappropriate contact with 18 year old students. The point is that despite the student being of legal age to consent, they are still in the teacher-pupil relationship. It is professionally inappropriate for a teacher to enter a intimate relationship with a student. There is no excuse.
I can’t believe how far things have evolved. When I was in junior high school, a teacher could not be seen in a bar in the town where I grew up. If they wanted to drink, they had to literally leave town. I don’t know what the policy was on dating students, because back then, it just didn’t happen; so I would imagine if it did, then a tar and feather mentality would take over. By the time I graduated from high school, these restrictions were relaxed and to quote my mother “morals were shot to hell” (referring to drinking).
I’m quite sure that Anonymous (the first post) might be talking about the same school I am — or there were two similar cases in two similar towns. That was the only case I heard of for several years, things came close after that (according to rumor), but as far as I know, nothing official was ever done.
The point I am trying to make, is if we are against a teacher/student relationship, then we need to come down hard now. If not, restrictions seem to get more lax as time goes on.
I agree that teachers and students are not an acceptable combination for a romantic relationship. There are just too many reasons to avoid this. Even waiting until graduation can be a problem.
My maid of honor in ‘76 had just graduated from high school, and had also just gotten married to the band teacher that same summer. The band teacher was young, new that previous school year, and she was in one of his classes. They were engaged by Thanksgiving of ‘75, during her senior year.
No babies arrived in 1976, but it was a scandal nevertheless. Everyone assumed the worst, and they went from being well respected, upstanding citizens to gossip fodder.
I lost touch with them after that, but I hope their relationship worked out. However, it couldn’t have been easy.
It’s just too fraught with potential issues, whether the student is mature or not. And it’s subjective, we will all have a different opinion over when it would be okay or not (age is not always an indicator of maturity).
I think all Joe’s suggestions seem very reasonable.