Posted on 05/15/2011 11:51:00 AM PDT by rawhide
A PE teacher falsely accused of molesting a 12-year-old schoolgirl has spoken of his pain at telling his children he was going to be arrested.
Sean Lanigan was pulled out of a class in Fairfax, Virginia, and told he was going to be arrested for allegedly carrying out the offences.
In reality his 'crimes' had been invented and the schoolgirl bore a grudge against him.
Despite being cleared of all the offences, the teacher’s $125,000 legal fees still haven’t been repaid by the state and he is struggling to get his life back.
The young girl claimed that the teacher had taken him into the gym and said he was going to ‘treat her like a Queen’ and briefly groped her.
This line, it turns out is a lyric from one or her favourite music bands, the Ataris.
He had told his ‘victim’ off for being abusive on the school bus and the girl apparently told her friends: ‘Mr Lanigan’s a jerk. I’m going to make him pay.’
When it came to trial, the jury took only 47 minutes to decide he was not guilty. Such a short deliberation in a child sex abuse case is extremely rare.
They described it as an ‘easy decision’ since ‘there was no evidence.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
I teach swimming lessons and am a swim coach. Articles like this just send shivers down my spine. I have talked with female instructors and we both agree there are things they can do that I have to be very careful with. I always try to keep my hands visible.
I’d like to see WSJ’s Dorothy Rabinowitz take on this story.
All at once we had people wandering around who were guys in dresses, wearing lipstick and swinging their butts.
It is fair under such circumstances to demand medical proof of the complainant's sex.
Otherwise you can't possibly mount a defense!
I worked in a home office a few years ago; once the Mom mentioned that she wanted to go shopping and that the two girls (roughly 13 and 9) “wouldn’t bother me”.......I quashed that request real quick and set down the new rule of the office.
Child molestation is something you are guilty of by accusation.
Any attempt to defend yourself is simply proof of guilt.
Judges gotta eat, you know.
It is sad that it has become so common for children to falsely accuse people in authority. I seem to recall that several women in Salem were accused of being witches by girls in town that just didn’t like them. So it isn’t new behavior, but it is more prevalent and harder to put behind you.
Now that the technology exists, I wouldn’t have a problem with digital audio and video recordings of everything that happens in a classroom. Parents could access it to verify their kids are behaving and learning in classrooms, but it would also be a record for teachers to defend themselves with against false accusations. The kids would learn that they can’t get away with lying.
As a teacher, how would you feel about every minute of your classroom being recorded from several angles and archived forever ? You’d be opening yourself up to criticism by admin and parents of how you do your job.
Outside the classroom, it’s tempting to record every minute of your own life on audio and video for your own protection. Timestamping every frame of video would account for every second of every day and be an alibi if wrongly accused of a crime. Unfortunately it is currently a violation of wiretap laws to record anybody without their express permission. Cops actually arrest people trying to video their own traffic stop, for example.
I have considered audio taping every one of my classes, but after checking into NYS law, it seems you can’t tape minors. They can submit fallacious statements which really can lead to a teacher being fired, but a teacher can’t tape them because they’re minors. If “minors” are SO believable and their adult professional teacher is not, then WHY does the State mandate that the state regents exams must be proctored very strictly to prevent cheating? How can they be believable for one thing and not for another?
Middle school mean kids are the worst. They are smart enough to hatch a plot against an enemy and stupid enough to not realize the full weight of what they are doing.
We had a neighbor whose truant daughter called the police and lied saying he was beating her. They stormed the house and she had her own dad arrested because he grounded her for skipping school and made her furious.
Worse, this was Mass. and they introduced a new requirement of registration for gun owners this dad had not met yet. So the cops got him on that! I wonder if he ever forgave that little skag.
Ain’t the judges getting it! (at least not above the table)
There ought to be a market for a good DIY legal defense service. That is presuming that the goal is Truth & Justice, not just playing the high cost, high stakes game of “Mother may I” or “Simon says” that passes for court cases these days.
A subscription website with a good decision matrix & flowchart used by a reasonably intelligent person should work.
Ordinary people with access to plans & technical advice can build airplanes in their garages which can fly at 24,000 feet and 330 mph. http://www.lancair.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=category&id=71&Itemid=130
Why could someone not also defend themselves?
When I look at some of the idiots in Congress who are lawyers I truly believe that DIY legal defense is a sane option.
Yeah, I know the old adage, “Anyone who acts as his own lawyer has a fool for a client.” Otherwise known as the “Bar Association Full Employment” slogan.
Are we being charged for slick talk in front of a stupid and/or lazy judge, or is it just the Ivy League Old Boys Club version of “no scabs allowed, you must have a Union Card”?
Is the person behind the bench a judge of right and wrong, guilt or innocence, or are they simply the referee in fancy version of “Professional Wrestling” called “May the Best Lawyer Win”?
/rant
Soapbox put back in the closet.
“I don’t understand why any male would want to become a teacher. And here’s Exhibit A.”
You do it because it is the right thing to do. An opportunity to do good; to serve your country and community; and to make sure the position isn’t occupied by some communist. I accept the possibility of being sued just like I accept the possibility of dying in a car accident on the way to/from work. It can happen, and it can be under circumstances that cannot be prevented, so worrying or fretting about it is a waste.
Before I started dating my wife, (28+ years ago) I made sure her only child was a MALE. Reason being, I had an uncle spend several years in Texas Dept. of Corrections for sex crimes against his 12 yo stepdaughter. I don't know if he did or did not, but I was not going to take the chance with my life.
Before I started dating my wife, (28+ years ago) I made sure her only child was a MALE. Reason being, I had an uncle spend several years in Texas Dept. of Corrections for sex crimes against his 12 yo stepdaughter. I don't know if he did or did not, but I was not going to take the chance with my life.
What reason would a parent give for withholding permission for a classroom to be videotaped ? Locker rooms and bathrooms, of course not, but a classroom ? If I were a parent, I'd love to have the ability to randomly check audio/video recording every square inch of the public spaces where someone in authority is acting in loco-parentis of my kid.
Teachers unions have so much clout in most states that if they wanted to get such a law on the ballot or pushed through the legislature, they could do it. So that leaves me wondering if a majority of teachers are more afraid of their everyday non-molesting teaching performance being evaluated than they are of being falsely accused.
Men are easy prey in today’s society. When the dollar crashes and the government fails, and women lose their special state sanctioned status, don’t worry ladies, most of us will forget how you tried to destroy us for the last 40 years. At least then, women will once again see the value of a good man.
You do it because it is the right thing to do. An opportunity to do good; to serve your country and community; and to make sure the position isn’t occupied by some communist. I accept the possibility of being sued just like I accept the possibility of dying in a car accident on the way to/from work. It can happen, and it can be under circumstances that cannot be prevented, so worrying or fretting about it is a waste.
Well, good for you, sir. As for me, I would never want to put myself in any employment position in which I would find myself, to use your words, "worrying or fretting" about someone making an accusation that would ruin my good name and possibly put me in prison. And for the life of me, I don't understand why a man would. I don't give a hoot about this contribution to society bit. I am concerned about No. 1 and only No. 1.
But that's just me.
The attorney fees are separate.
our justice system is based on evidence in a court of law...like the jurors stated...there was no evidence....
not to reflect on this case because it was pretty weak, but the jurors thought there was no "evidence" in the ojsimpson trial either....yet most people don't think he was "vindicated"...
Why would you want to give such a potent weapon of you teaching the class to the administration? They could easily edit it to incriminate you. And, what you might consider a little joke or humor might be viewed as an insult to a kid, with all the cultural differences you encounter in a NYC classroom. A Hispanic male teacher in the Bronx recently was fined a huge amount for using a word of Spanish slang. Seems it means one thing in one country and another thing in other Spanish-speaking countries.
If I call on a Chinese student to answer a question, I often get the brain-dead students screaming out, “That’s racist!” Everything is racist to them. They can parrot perfectly what Al Sharpton and his ilk pollute the airways with, but couldn’t tell you what was on the board 5 minutes ago. What is racist about calling on a Chinese student? Only the brain-dead could tell you.
I have been asked to teach in several areas and I have refused it. I cannot bring myself to put me and my family in harm’s way through false allegations of sexual harassment.
I’m an excellent teacher and have taught very complex subjects to adults, but teaching children is out. Simply no way I’m going to do it.
I have seen friends destroyed by false allegations and I will not allow it to happen to me and my family.
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