Posted on 05/23/2002 10:59:34 AM PDT by Coleus
Yes!
Compare with current situation with priests?
There are about 900 priests involved out of 48,000 nationwide=1.875%, no higher than the national average.
He may lose his job.
A 13 year old boy? And sex is simply a matter of self-satisfaction?
I have no doubt that your ho-hum, shallow, callous attitude is common in our pornographic society. That's why we have rampant promiscuity, widespread STDs, huge numbers of abortions, and fatherless families. That is the inevitable harvest of a society that places no greater value or sanctity on sex than you do. Apparently, to you sex is just one more itch to scratch, not fundamentally different than picking your nose or scratching your rear-end.
"Compared to priests?"
This article is not about priests, its about a female teacher.
My answer is Hang 'em both.Teachers and Priests. No sex with children/juveniles by any adult.
Clergy scandal overshadows teacher-sex cases
June 13, 2002 Posted: 9:46 AM EDT (1346 GMT
SAN BERNARDINO, California (AP) -- A California high school teacher runs off to Las Vegas with her 15-year-old student. A Louisiana teacher is accused of having an affair with her 14-year-old student. In the Bronx, a teacher is charged with statutory rape involving a 16-year-old former student.
Such cases aren't uncommon across the country. But unlike the Roman Catholic Church's troubles with pedophile priests, teacher-student sex cases have received little attention beyond a few sensational cases.
Some experts point to what they see as a permissive attitude toward such relationships and a double standard because cases involving female teachers and male students are treated less severely
"The dynamics of the teacher-student cases are often different than the classic sexual abuse cases because they seem to involve consenting relationships between teachers and students," said David Finkelhor, director of the Center for Crimes Against Children Research Center at the University of New Hampshire.
"... Clear boundaries have to be enforced."
No single national agency tracks sex-related cases against teachers. However, it's estimated there are at least several hundred such incidents each year across the country, said Nan Stein, director of a project on sexual harassment in schools at the Center for Research on Women at Wellesley College.
In 1998, Education Week searched newspaper archives and computer databases and found 244 cases in a six-month period involving allegations ranging from unwanted touching to sexual relationships and serial rape.
National attention
This year, one of the few cases to capture national attention was that of Tanya Hadden, a 33-year-old San Bernardino high school science teacher who went to Las Vegas in April with a 15-year-old male student. The boy told police the couple had sex multiple times.
Teacher-sex statistics
While there is no single tracking agency, it's estimated there are at least several hundred such incidents each year, according to Nan Stein, with the the Center for Research on Women at Wellesley College.
In 1998, Education Week searched newspaper archives and computer databases and found 244 cases in a six-month period involving allegations ranging from unwanted touching to sexual relationships and serial rape.
Hadden, charged in Nevada with 17 felony counts, is the sixth teacher in San Bernardino County jailed on sex-related charges since March.
In Hackensack, New Jersey, this spring, a judge sentenced 43-year-old teacher Pamela Diehl-Moore to probation after she admitted having sex with a seventh-grade student who was 13 at the time.
Prosecutors had argued for a jail term. But Judge Bruce A. Gaeta disagreed, saying the relationship may have been a way for the boy to "satisfy his sexual needs."
"I don't see anything here that shows this young man has been psychologically damaged by her actions. And don't forget, this was mutual consent," Gaeta said, according to court transcripts.
The judge has since been referred to a judicial disciplinary committee.
The case points up what some see as a double standard: Incidents involving female teachers and male students, although they happen less often, appear underreported and treated less severely because the boys involved don't see anything wrong with it or are reluctant to tell authorities.
"I think our society sort of says to the boy: 'Congratulations, that's great. Everybody fantasizes about having a sexual relationship with an older woman,'" said Bob Shoop, an education professor at Kansas State University and an expert witness in 30 court cases involving sexual abuse in schools.
'Why should we be concerned ...?'
Outrage might be greater if the public knew the full scope of the problem, said Terri Miller, president of Survivors of Sexual Abuse & Misconduct Emerge.
"Schools don't report rumors. Schools don't report allegations. Schools don't report teacher resignations" under suspicious circumstances, she said.
"You can't know how pervasive the problem is until you get better, standard reporting policies in all 50 states."
Only a few national surveys have addressed teacher-student sex cases, and nearly all were sexual harassment surveys.
"In the grand scheme of things, people say, 'Why should we be so concerned about it when students are bringing automatic weapons to school?'" said Nancy Eynon Lark, director of the American Association of University Women's educational foundation. "But there are real consequences of ignoring these kind of actions."
Education officials say a national policy addressing teacher-student relationships is unnecessary because local education codes and state laws are sufficient.
"We clearly see this as an issue of child abuse. In that regard, there is clearly law that directs school administrators not only how to report but when to report," said Barbara Knisley of the American Association of School Administrators.
Prevention and aftermath
Several states, such as Kansas and Mississippi, have laws prohibiting sex between teachers and students, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. Other states rely on statutory rape codes.
Some advocate further education for teachers and students similar to the warnings about date rape and sexual harassment offered at many high schools. Miller, of the victims' group, advocates stronger criminal laws and national legislation tightening reporting requirements.
"I think what's going to force it to be addressed is lawsuits, just like the Catholic Church," said Larry Bloom, a psychology professor at Colorado State University and an expert in evaluating sexually abused children. "They are going to do something about it when a school gets sued and has to pay money, lots of money."
At Cajon High School in San Bernardino, student Barbara Padilla, 16, said the atmosphere has been noticeably different since Hadden was charged.
"Teachers keep their doors open or they lock them so you can't come in. It's like they don't want to be seen with you," she said. "My math teacher told the whole class what happened was wrong. He wanted to make sure we knew that."
Copyright 2002 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
That's an understatement! And why doesn't the press inform the public of the full scope of the problem?
Public schools are GOOD.
The Catholic Church is BAD.
Have you read Bias yet?
One of the main points of the book is how the press focuses on stories which fit their worldview, and dismiss as irrelevant the ones that don't. That wasn't particularly news to me (I grew up in DC), but he gave specific insider examples.
I won't call it a great book, but definitely worth reading.
Nice, thoughtful, intellectual (and useless) contribution to the discussion.
The press has an agenda to change and take down the RCC; however,their tactic won't work.
The teaching profession is replete with child molesters and predators.
No way to tell what may befall this poor little boy because of this woman. His chances of having a normal life have been forever compromised for all your arguments, mostly his ability to come out of this without a scewed moral compass. Would you want your daughter to date him? If pederasty has a viral component he will also be at risk of visiting this same horror on another blameless child when he goes through his mid-life crisis. That may be OK with Ohioan? Just asking.
What this judge has done is take our society one step further down that Brave New World road: "Everyone belongs to everyone" We are already all flat equal in the eyes of the law so what is OK for a woman to do to whomever will soon be OK for anyone to do with whomever as long as the next milestone for these perverts (male and female) is achieved - as it already has been in Netherlands and England: lowering the age of "consent."
You are wrong Ohioan, and shortsighted.
v.
But this should not be encouraged. Many things are better simply let unsaid, unknown and not adjudicated.
Trainer accepts jail for affair with teen
Tuesday, June 18, 2002
Accused of carrying on an affair with a 16-year-old female student, a former Glen Rock High School athletic trainer wasn't about to test her luck with a jury - or a judge.
On Monday she pleaded guilty to sexual assault charges, in exchange for a pledge from prosecutors that they would seek no more than a four-year prison sentence.
Lois Weierstall's punishment will be determined by a Superior Court judge in Hackensack in the fall. Although her attorney, Nancy E. Lucianna, is holding out hope for leniency, she considers her chances for probation slim.
"The current climate makes it impossible to try a case like this and not face substantial jail time," Lucianna said Monday.
She was referring to another recent sex case, also involving a student-educator relationship, that sparked headlines. After admitting to an affair with a 13-year-old boy who had been in her class at Woodrow Wilson Middle School in Clifton, Pamela Diehl-Moore of Lyndhurst made a similar deal with prosecutors. In exchange for her guilty plea, they agreed to treat the crime as a third-degree offense and seek a three-year prison term.
But Superior Court Judge Bruce A. Gaeta scrapped the deal and sentenced Diehl-Moore to five years' probation with intensive counseling, citing psychological issues and an apparent lack of evidence that the boy had suffered as a result of the relationship.
Gaeta also made comments during the sentencing that caused a public uproar and prompted the county's top judge to request an inquiry by a statewide judicial review committee.
Lucianna said Monday that the Diehl-Moore case created a difficult atmosphere for her client. Given the controversy surrounding Gaeta's decision, any judge would likely be predisposed to issue a harsher sentence, she said.
Weierstall had been charged with four counts each of sexual assault and criminal sexual contact. Each of the sexual assault charges are second-degree offenses punishable by five to 10 years in prison.
Under the deal, Bergen County Assistant Prosecutor Patricia Baglivi agreed to treat the offense as a third-degree crime and seek a maximum sentence of four years.
Superior Court Judge Joseph S. Conte set a Sept. 27 sentencing date.
Weierstall's cheeks were flushed and she fought back tears as she responded tersely to her lawyer's questions at Monday's court appearance. She admitted to molesting the girl, who was identified only by her initials, between January and March 2001 at Weierstall's River Edge home and inside a parked car in Paramus.
Weierstall, 50, was a trainer for the school's female athletic teams at the time of the assaults. Although she held a teaching certificate, she did not teach classes, Lucianna said.
The girl was a senior and played on the school soccer team, where she met Weierstall.
The girl had introduced Weierstall to her parents as "a friend,'' but the parents became suspicious and hired a private investigator to follow their daughter, Lucianna said.
"This is an outstanding trainer who was with Glen Rock for 14 years," Lucianna said. "She's loved by the people at that school. This girl had deep feelings for Ms. Weierstall."
Although 16 is the age of consent in New Jersey, the relationship is illegal because of Weierstall's job.
"This was a consensual relationship," Lucianna said. "It's only criminal because of her status at the school."
Baglivi said Weierstall's position at the school afforded her influence over the girl. That, she said, is why the law specifically treats such cases differently.
Weierstall must also forfeit her computer, which is how Baglivi said the two communicated. Lucianna said the girl sent Weierstall frequent e-mails of an intimate nature.
Lucianna said her client was suffering from depression when she engaged in the relationship. She said Weierstall cares for her parents, both of whom are in their 80s, and that sending her to prison would seriously affect them.
Weierstall's teaching license has been suspended and will be forfeited as a result of Monday's guilty plea.
Paulo Lima's e-mail address is lima@northjersey.com
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