Tuesday, July 9, 2013

Letter #10 - Trends of Teacher Sexual Misconduct and Consideration of Gender Segregation in American Classrooms


My daughters, there has been a disturbing trend across the United States which has become more and more frequent over the past few decades and that trend is the inappropriate behavior of teacher misconduct, especially in instances that are sexual in nature.  These manipulative and predatory incidents, without question controlled by the adult, occur with adult teachers of both genders.  In the contents of this letter, I will analyze a few cases that have occurred in the current time era and in order to determine whether this immoral trend has increased, maintained consistency, or decreased when your children are brought forth….you may research news reports and statistics at that time and make historical comparisons to the time period in which I write.

The first thing that needs to be noted is that there is a stereotypical attitude in American society that when an adult female teacher conducts sexual misconduct and manipulation of a school boy it is less disdainful compared to the male adult teacher who commits sexual misconduct toward a female student.  I took a quick survey of views while writing this letter and for the most part everyone surveyed agreed that both gender scenarios were immoral and wrong, but I noted that the men surveyed considered the manipulation and exploitation by a male teacher on a female student considerably worse than a female teacher having a sexual relationship with a male student, while the women who were surveyed considered both gender scenarios equally immoral and damaging to the youth.  I have to assume that the different views on this subject from the different viewpoints of men and women are shaped by the current, and even historical, norms and values of American society which, without question, is a rapidly degenerating society.  This degeneration must be attributed, at minimum to some level, to the mass produced inorganic popular culture this is force fed to our people from youth.

Selecting one of the misconduct reports to analyze, I have selected a report out of Kansas City were a 25 year old male teacher is accused of having an inappropriate sexual relationship will a 14 year old female student.  Below is an excerpt of the news report by KCTV 5:

“The girl told authorities that they had sexual relations inside Rigby's classroom and at her home. She said they exchanged nude pictures of each other via cell phone, and they had sex twice at her residence and at least twice inside the classroom since last fall.  In an interview May 16, the girl told police that she had feared she had become pregnant and he had her take a pregnancy test, which was negative. She claimed that he would have forced her to have an abortion if she had been pregnant, according to court records.   In an interview with Kearney school administrators, Rigby denied having sexual relations with the girl. He said he had not sent pictures of himself or received pictures of students on his cell phone, according to police.  An administrator found a pregnancy test package in Rigby's desk drawer. One of the tests was gone while the second, unused test remained in the packaging.” – (KCTV June 3, 2013)

The report, one of many similar reports across the United States, brings forth a plethora of questions for consideration.  The first question is where was the parental monitoring of this young lady?  The allegations report that this sexual relationship not only took place in the classroom, which is disturbing enough, but twice at her home.  Why is this 25 year old man at this 13-14 year old girl’s home?  And why is she alone with this male teacher in the classroom (which is obviously isolated enough for sexual contact without notice from the staff).  What is the mindset of this so-called teacher in his middle twenties and how did he slide through the cracks to become a teacher in charge of minors?

In a second example from spring 2013, a male New York Middle School teacher named Daniel Reilly was charged with, and pleaded guilty to, sexual misconduct.  The following excerpts are from New York Daily News:

“A predatory former sixth-grade teacher who used cellphone code names to hide an affair with his 14-year-old former student pleaded guilty to statutory rape Monday.  Former Queens Intermediate School 237 teacher Daniel Reilly, 36, admitted to bedding a 14-year-old girl as recently as last month in the Queens apartment he shares with his wife and baby daughter.”

From the same story, but from an ABC7 report:

“Police say 35-year-old Daniel Reilly carried on a more than nine month affair with a former student that began when the girl was 14 years old.  Reilly was arrested at IS 237 in Flushing, Queens, where he works as a sixth-grade English teacher.  Police say the suspect taught the girl when she was in elementary school, and she is not presently a student at the school where he now teaches.  The child's parents called police Monday after the girl's sister read a series of sexually-explicit text messages between Reilly and the victim.  The sexual encounters allegedly took place at Reilly's Forest Hills residence between August 2012 and April 2013.” (ABC 7 report – April 9, 2013).

Again we see a sexual relationship that has developed between adult male teacher and a young female student.  Despite being married with children, the sexual encounters occurred at this teacher’s home.  Again, the absence of parental monitoring should be questioned and several hard questions must be posed: 1) Are our American children given too much unmonitored freedom under the current moral condition of American society? 2)  Do our young people attempt to enter an adult world too quickly under the mass produced impressions of inorganic popular culture?  3) Are these teenage victims responsible in any manner at all or have they been mentally and emotionally manipulated by a predator to go to a married adult male teacher’s house or other scenarios of manipulation?

For the third example, as the examples of teacher sexual misconduct are limitless, we will look at a report from Pittsburgh in May 13, 2013 reported by CBS affiliate KDKA:

“….high school English teacher is now facing criminal charges.  He’s accused of sexually assaulting several girls.  Jonathan Crum, 28, an English teacher at Moniteau High School is in the Butler County Jail facing 26 different counts of sexual misconduct involving students at the school.  “A lot of the sexual abuse includes asking the children under 18 for indecent photographs and there was some indecent contact as well,” a police officer said.  State Police say the contacts started back as early as September of 2009. They happened in school and included physical touching, sexual pictures and other contacts, with at least five girls — all underage at the time.  “As far as our investigation has led, the crimes all happened on Moniteau property some inside the classroom,” the officer said.” (KDKA)

The fourth example is about a 28 year old female teacher in Los Angeles who is accused of becoming pregnant by a 15-16 year old student.  The news report was published in the L.A. Times on July 6, 2013.

“Laura Elizabeth Whitehurst, 28, joined the Redlands Unified School District six years ago as an English teacher at Redlands High School and allegedly began sexual relationships with two boys, one as young as 14, authorities say.” (LA Times – July 6, 2013)

“Since the teacher's arrest, other former students have come forward.  Police said a 20-year-old man told detectives that he began his relationship with her in the fall of 2007 when he was a 14-year-old freshman, Redlands police said.  He said he and Whitehurst had sex in her classroom before school, in her apartment and in her car, said Redlands police spokesman Carl Baker. He told police the relationship ended in early 2008.  Another alleged victim, now 22, told police he had a sexual relationship with Whitehurst while she was his teacher at Redlands High. He said the relationship took place when he was a junior at the high school in 2007 and 2008, according to Baker.  The man told authorities the relationship began after a discussion about an English paper about dreams and she told him she had a dream about kissing him. Whitehurst left Redlands High in 2009 and worked at another school before going to Citrus Valley High.” (LA Times – July 6, 2013))

These four examples are all reports from 2013 and I could probably post 10 pages of similar reports.  We will stop with four examples for this letter and begin to contemplate the causes and possible solutions for this troubling trend.

The top cause would be a disintegrating moral fabric within society and, specifically in these types of cases, being mastered by lower, animalistic base desires on the part of the adult.  The intellectual level of the adult must also be called into question if they are actually engaging in a relationship with a child, but in many cases the victim is being mentally and emotionally manipulated by the predator.  One may question the statement concerning intellectual development of the adult, since we are discussing teachers, but many teachers are not truly educated, intellectually developed or morally disciplined…and have only managed to earn a college teaching degree and a job recommendation in order to earn a paycheck in a position of authority over American children (and this also is a problem with the lack of true education in our American schools). 

Another conundrum is the social positioning of our young women in American society, which is clearly a confusing double standard.  On the one hand, our young ladies are considered children until the age of 18 while in many cases their bodies can give birth much earlier even though their emotional and intellectual development is still childlike.  Should more emphasis be placed on their protection and education?  Should we begin to prepare our children from an earlier age?  We know that the American school system barely covers these issues.  Another area of society that complicates matters is the mass produced inorganic popular culture that influences our young ladies and subconsciously and conscious develops what is considered cool and stylish in their society.  In many cases, young ladies as early as 13 or 14 will attempt to dress as adults, imitate adults and inorganic popular culture, and enjoy adult freedoms.  Please take some time to watch the television programs aimed at young adults and see how many of these ‘harmless’ television programs encourage lying to parents about things, maliciously self-destructive peer pressures, sexual promiscuity, and careless social behaviors.   It amazes me that many parents, even in a society filled with predators and consequences, will allow their daughters to go out during weeknights or weekends with only a slight understanding of where they are and what they are doing.

Proposal, arguments, and counter arguments for gender segregation in public schools:

Proposal:

I strongly support gender segregation in public school classrooms with male teachers teaching male students and female teachers teaching female students.  Under proper gender segregation, teachers and students of the opposite sex would have no contact (especially one on one contact).  These prevention mechanisms would greatly reduce incidents of teacher misconduct, sexual assault, and would enhance concentration on educational development.

Argument #1:

Gender segregation in the classrooms would not stop same-gender advances, teacher misconduct, assaults, and manipulation by predator teachers who have slipped through the educational system.

Counter argument:

No, it would not, but gender segregation in public schools would reduce the number of teacher misconduct, sexual assaults and inappropriate relationship incidents by, at a minimum, half.  If there was an option to reduce by a large percentage these negative incidents against our American children, why wouldn’t a reform policy such as gender segregation in classrooms become implemented, or at minimum become an option for tax paying citizens?  There should be an option for tax paying citizens to decide if their children will attend gender segregated or gender integrated classrooms.  For the most part, the only other option is private schools, usually religious in nature, which brings various forms of fairy tale religious indoctrinations with it.

Argument #2:

The ACLU, liberal views, and proponents of Feminism claim that gender segregation in public schools would take the position of females in society back several decades and that differing curriculums between classrooms would reinforce old social stereotype of a male dominated society structure.  The argument of reduced social interaction between boys and girls, which indeed can be productive to educational development, is also placed forward.

Counter argument:

The proposal is not to alter public school curriculum, as parental involvement is paramount to educational success, but to segregate male and female students from same-gender teachers to reduce the current trends of sexual misconduct by teachers.  The proposal is put forth to maintain equal state (or nationally) regulated academic curriculums in both female and male classrooms with no differences between curriculums.  It is proposed that public schools offering gender segregated classrooms hold regularly scheduled inter-gender academic exercises, debates, and events for intellectual and social exchanges between students, but that under no circumstances should a teacher of one gender be allowed to establish contact, especially one on one contact, with students of the other gender.  Gender segregated classrooms 1) would be aimed to reduce the vulnerability of our children by predator teachers of the opposite gender, not to completely cut-off social integration with opposite gender students  2) reduce the social distractions of the opposite gender and social norms and values (during classroom time) in favor of increased classroom attention and intellectual development 3)  Does not support superiority of either gender as the development of educational, moral and intellectual values  of all American students are pertinent for the future of the United States.

A few supplemental cases of teacher misconduct from 2013:

Kelly Ann Garcia (Houston) June 2013 (same gender misconduct)


Kahtanna Culp (Houston) March 2013 Sexual relationship with student


Elyse Cromwell (New Jersey) February 2013 Accused of a sexual relationship with a 14 year old


DaNita Wilson (Georgia) January 2013 32 year old teacher accused of having sex with seven students


George Hernandez, 45 (California) February 2012


Mark Berndt, 61, (California) charged with committing lewd acts on 23 boys and girls, ages 6 to 10, between 2008 and 2010 at Miramonte Elementary School


Alain Salas, 40, (California) February 2012, lewd texting to a 15 year old girl


 

No comments:

Post a Comment