By Alan CarubaAmerica is a very different place from the one in which I grew up in the 1940s and 50s. Change is to be expected. Technology transforms the way we live, often in ways we do not initially comprehend. Events alter our perceptions, but one thing does not change. It is morality. The rules of good and bad behavior, right and wrong do not change.
It has always been wrong, at least in the Judeo-Christian culture of Western civilization, for an adult to have sex with a child and particularly with one under their supervision. Our government run schools with compulsory attendance put the vast bulk of our children in the care of strangers.
Fifty or more years ago if a teacher was found to be having sex with a student, the entire community was appalled. The offending teacher would be sent to jail. That is less and less the case these days because school administrators are often at pains to sweep such cases under the rug in some fashion or to ignore children courageous enough to complain of inappropriate behavior. Judges too often lean in favor of the offending teacher.
I will not address whether or not there is more sex between students, but there is sufficient data to suggest this too has been a growing problem for many years. In families where both parents work, the child has more unsupervised time, cell phones permit for private communications, and access to pornography is far more available to young people. This affords greater susceptibility to sexual relations with teachers and peers.
Today cases involving teacher-student sex rate a headline, but those headlines have become a continual series of such stories. My impression is that there is too much teacher-student sex in our schools and it does not appear to evoke as much outcry or concern as in former times.
Worthy of an entire separate commentary (or a book!) today’s children and young people have been increasingly sexualized in terms of the popular media, fashion, et cetera.
A recent World Net Daily story caught my eye. On June 4 the headline was “Teacher rapes girl after predator principal snagged.” In Georgetown, Delaware’s Sussex Central High School, a popular teacher was arrested on charges of allegedly having raped a 15-year-old female student. He had just delivered the spring commencement speech. A year earlier, the same school’s principal faced charges for having sex with a 17-year-old female student.
WND’s David Kupelian wrote an extensive article for Whistleblower magazine in March 2006 that examined the “epidemic of teacher-student sex.” The website has pages devoted to how many cases there have been in recent years at http://www.worldnetdaily.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=39783
People of a conservative point of view tend to be watchful for signs that our society is endangered by failing moral standards, not because we don’t view sex as a natural part of life, but because we know there are rules of behavior a healthy, civil society must apply. Among those rules are those involving protecting youth who are vulnerable if neither parent, nor church, has provided moral boundaries and cautions.
As a good friend points out, it takes parents to raise a child properly, not a “village.”
Schools are part of the “village”, but it is clear they can no longer automatically be trusted to provide protection against sexual predators. And the best protection are parents who explain the rules and why they exist. Parents these days must provide the support and trust a child needs in order to report any sexual advances, inappropriate touching, and similar threats to the child’s present and long term welfare. It’s not a victimless crime.
Along with rape, a crime recognized by every society, there are widespread state laws regarding statutory rape with those deemed too young to make a judgment regarding sex with an older male or female.
The numbers of female teachers accused and arrested for statutory rape has been increasing and, along with male teachers, the need to impose stiff jail sentences and the assurance they never again can teach anywhere needs to be addressed in every town and city in America.
The reality, however, is that our tabloid society has been exploiting cases of teacher-student sex and the message has been that it is not a crime, nor that it endangers and warps the lives of the seduced students despite the defense of “mutual consent”.
We used to be far more watchful and far more outraged. Apparently, we’re not any more.
Editor’s Note: There are two recently published books from Regnery Publishing that concerned parents should read. They are You’re Teaching My Child What? A Physician Exposes the Lies of Sex Education and How they Can Harm Your Child and 30 Ways in 30 Days to Save Your Family.
4 comments:
Public education, as we know it today, is the product of in early 1900's Progressive Movement thinking. The Progressive Movement was the American answer to European socialism, which is atheistic in nature, and that didn’t float well in America. The goal wasn't just the three "R's". The real goal was to make sure that "the apple fell as far from the tree as possible". The state was to be the final moral authority; not the parents nor the churches; which is kind of interesting because the binding force of the Progressive Movement, up until the late 40's and early 50's, was religion in the form of the “social gospel”, which the real socialists hated. These events are the end product of over 100 years of undermining the family.
Hi Mr. Caruba- I remember reading WND's list a couple of times and was disgusted, as both times, the list got longer. We just had a similar case near where I live where a band teacher was accused of having sex with a female student. Where I would be horrified if my kid was in the school band program, most parents seemed more worried about how the kids would be able to have a band if the teacher was fired!
I could almost understand if this was one isolated case, but it's been shown on the news that he was fired from another district for the same thing!
Another point I would like to share, is that people these days seem to be oblivious to the over sexualization of our kids. One only has to see these teachers, but also look in the abortion clinics where 10, 11 and 12 year old girls are brought in by their "boyfriends" who are in late teens or early 20's! These kids are being raped pure and simple, but in the name of "privacy" and education and whatever else they want to call it- it's the same thing. I am saddened at the way kids are exploited by all sorts of activist groups all wanting to promote their own thing. Kids are exploited in schools, after school programs, in movies books and every other media outlet, but the kids don't even realize it. Sadly, neither do many parents. God Bless you Mr. Caruba. Thank you~
There was an episode of South Park a while back that dealt with the subject of a female teacher having sex with a young male student. When the authorities were called in, they were told that this hot young teacher was having sex with this young boy, at which point, they all muttered "nice ...." quietly under their breath. I suppose the point the writers were trying to get across was that there is a big double standard when it comes to male vs female teachers having relations with their students. Regardless, the real lesson is that there is a clear lack of awareness or concern in our society today when it comes to the caliber of the people teaching our kids. I don't have any children, but if I did, you can rest assured they would NOT be in public schools ...
As visitors to this site know, I rarely comment on sexual mores. I usually leave that to clerics and others, but this problem of teacher-student sex seems to be increasing and it is very worrying for the health of our society and nation.
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