Christiansburg teacher allegedly had sex with teen

CHRISTIANSBURG -- A former Christiansburg High School teacher was charged Tuesday with having sex with one of her students during the 2008-09 school year.

Diana Eckes Canter, 34, of Christiansburg was charged with eight felony counts of taking indecent liberties with a minor -- as someone in a custodial or supervisory position having sexual intercourse with a minor. She was arrested Tuesday night and released from the Montgomery County Jail on a $5,000 bond.

Canter resigned from her job as an 11th-grade English teacher Tuesday, said Becky Hawke Wilburn, spokeswoman for the town of Christiansburg.

Canter couldn't be reached for comment Wednesday. A phone number associated with the address listed for her in court files is disconnected.

Montgomery County school system spokeswoman Brenda Drake directed all questions about the investigation to Christiansburg police. Superintendent Brenda Blackburn also declined to comment.

The offenses were reported to have occurred between December 2008 and August 2009, and the boy is no longer a student in the school system, Wilburn said. Arrest warrants filed in Montgomery County Juvenile and Domestic Relations Court show that the charges against Canter have offense dates of January, February, March and April 2009, with two charges stemming from each month.

So far, Wilburn said, the investigation indicates that none of the offenses took place on campus.

Wilburn said police began to investigate after the boy contacted the police department.

According to search warrant affidavits filed Wednesday in Montgomery County Circuit Court, the boy on Friday "made a report of a prior sexual relationship with Diana Canter, a teacher at Christiansburg High School, while he was a minor going to Christiansburg High School."

Christiansburg police obtained warrants to procure from Christiansburg High School and the Montgomery County School Board office "documents, letters, files, disciplinary actions and complaints made in reference to" Canter between August 2008 and June 2009. Assorted documents were taken from both, but court records don't specify what they are.

According to her profile page on Christiansburg High School's website, Canter taught 11th-grade English, advanced placement English and film studies. She is listed as graduating from Virginia Tech in 1998 with a bachelor's degree in English and in 2000 with a master's degree in education.

According to Montgomery County Public Schools records, Canter had been employed with the school system since 2000 and earned $45,150 annually.

On the website ratemyteacher.com, someone described Canter on July 2 as "The next teacher you'll see on the news. Wants the cute guys to drool and the lonely girls to be in her click [sic]."

However, John Beamer, president of the Christiansburg High School PTSA, said he was surprised to hear about the charges.

Both his son and daughter were in Canter's classes, and he said he never saw signs of misconduct.

"She was a good teacher, and my children enjoyed having her," he said. He recalled Canter as "very competent, and very professional," saying she was always upfront with parents during meetings.

On Canter's CHS Web page, she lists editor with Pocahontas Press as a past job. The owner of the Blacksburg-based press couldn't be reached Wednesday.

The school system requires sexual harassment training for both employees and students at least twice a year. Those trainings include topics about employee-to-employee harassment, student-to-teacher harassment and teacher-to-student harassment, Drake said.

I really can’t understand this. I am 63 and this kind of behavior was unheard of when I was in school.

I an 61 and I will take a shot at why we are seeing an epidemic of this sort of behavior.

First, when you and I were in high school, teachers had a moral terpitude clause in their contracts. Such an arrest would result in the termination of the teacher. Were he or she acquitted, he or she would get her job back with back pay. Today we have people (read union representatives) who have eliminated the moral terpitude clause from contracts and who draw out the process of dealing with such "educators".

Second, back in those days, my father and every other father of my classmates save one (who had served in WWI) had served in WWI and were not afraid to take the administration to task about such behavior. If a male teacher molested a female student, that individual would likely have needed the entire police force to attempt to protect him from a company of fathers...and in my town the Chief of Police would simply have told the SOB he was on his own, that the police had no obligation to provide preemptive security.

Third, sortly after you and I left high school, the country was roiled by the "sexual revolution" which created a permissive and promiscuous society. College students coupled like cluster of snakes emerging from hibernation. A few years later, high school students and today junior high school students have joined the ranks of the less than civilized. Just try using the words "slut" or "tramp" to describe a female who sleeps around. You are likely to be attacked from all quarters.

Fourth, the teachers and administrators of many school systems have taken it upon themselves to create curricula that teach "values" that are antithetical to the values of the parents of many of the students. Just look around. Here in Massachusetts a school committee (that would be school board in most of the rest of the country) voted to give out condoms no questions asked in all grades from K(!) through 12. That is, a radical element has seized control of our schools at all levels--at the school committee level, at the administrative level, and at the teacher level.

Fifth, this woman has been a sexually promiscuous individual since puberty having grown up in the cesspool that passes for culture in our school systems from K through graduate school. Having been immersed in such foulness, she probably has not developed a reliable sexual moral compass and likely has bought into the 1970s concept of "If it feels good, do it." As a result, she is a slut, a tramp, and a sexual predator who needs to do jail time regardless of her looks.

And what we need are a corps of fathers who are not afraid to take on the school board, the administrators, and the teachers and the thugocracies of their unions to weed out teachers who are predators.

So, do you think the New York Times will run this story?

Do you think Jeffrey Anderson wil charge into the fray and sue the school district for a million dollars?

Do you tnink the entire federsa school system will be shamed and sued to put them out of business?

How about sueing the NEA and the teachers union too?

Do you think the media hounds will dredge up full stats on how many of these crimes have been perpetrated over the past 50 years?

If not, why not????

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