I keep reading about the ever increasing number of reported cases of female teachers have sex with their male (and female) students. Everyone seems shocked by that fact, and I suppose that normally when one thinks of inappropriate teacher student relationships, they think of creepy male teachers and their female students.
The website World Net Daily has compiled the summaries of all the latest female teacher cases in sort of a "mug shot" style article.
I used to work with a fantastic lawyer named Elizabeth Kuniholm who has a national reputation suing perpetrators of sexual abuse. I have some experience working on these types of cases which are both tragic and complicated. I can't quite figure out if there has been a rise in female molestation or if some other societal factor is playing a part here.
Certainly, it is proven that children are becoming sexually active at younger ages. Pop culture breeds a mentality that "anything" goes. Sexual mores are loosening up, and teenage boys are becoming more overt in their sexuality. I'm sure when I was in High School in the 80's, something like this was happening somewhere, but I just don't think it happened as much.
My guess is that teenage boys have no "fear" of having sexual relations with their female teachers. Most of the cases we see now talk about "consensual" acts, though I don't think that a minor can really have a "consensual" sexual act with an adult, let alone an authority figure. At least the law says that. I think this phenomena is a combination of teenage boys feeling emboldened to act on their hormonal instincts, and the female teachers thinking that it is OK, for some reason.
I would be interested to hear what other people think about this. Do you think this is simply that with the Internet and 24 hour TV we just hear about this more? Are people more likely to report it to police? Are the police more likely to prosecute these crimes? What do you think is behind this disturbing trend?
Chris Nichols
Nichols Law Firm
Here's one to curl your hair:
Well, maybe not sex education, but rather sex IN education. The news broke today that here in Beaumont, Texas, a coach and former student have been indicted for their roles in an alleged sex ring at a local magnet high school. A grand jury believes the two were recruiting younger girls as sex toys for junior and senior football players.
A detective on the case said the club called itself the "3K," which stands for the "Kutchie Kissing Klique" -- which he described as "a group of guys who sought to have oral sex with younger girls."
Read the story here: http://www.southeasttexaslive.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=17040572&BRD=2287&PAG=461&dept_id=512588&rfi=6
Is anybody really investigating who we put in charge of kids these days?
Posted by: Ron Franscell | August 10, 2006 at 09:08 PM
Ron,
Great post. I've made this issue into a new Blog entry that can be viewed at http://nctrialblog.typepad.com/north_carolina_trial_law_/2006/08/another_teacher.html
Chris
Posted by: Chris Nichols | August 11, 2006 at 12:06 AM