Traditionally, teachers who bonded with students were able to stay in touch after leaving, or after a student graduated. That isn’t a bad thing, and such mentoring is usually a good thing, particularly with disadvantaged children or those missing a parent, etc. People need to be careful that “grooming” doesn’t become hysteria that intimidates good teachers from interacting with their students, or coaches with their teams, etc. I am seeing this happen and it is very wrong.
There are also constitutional first amendment freedoms getting frozen as well. Newt Gingrich married his high school math teacher. No one charged her with anything, and Newt appears not to have been harmed by that relationship. At one point in America, marriage was considered the goal to channel sex into families and children, and getting married ended any claim of an educator’s impropriety, but not today. A teacher can lose his/her teaching license for getting romantically involved with a student, but if it isn’t illegal sex with a minor, it’s not criminal.
But unlike the Boy Scouts which implemented Two-Deep leadership protocols and other controls to guard against abuse, frommy reading not many school districts have equally-robust controls in place. Why?
Parenthetically, Gingrich is low on my list of People Who Have Lead Exemplary Personal Lives. He was in a virtual “how frequently can I divorce and still keep my job?” contest with Limbaugh