‍More Pedo Teachers - When Will We Really Investigate This Problem?‍

Discussion in 'Education' started by trumptman, Jul 16, 2023.

  1. trumptman

    trumptman Newly Registered

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    https://thepostmillennial.com/new-y...-milkshake-chicken-nuggets?utm_campaign=64476

    Twenty years in the same district and we are supposed to believe no one knew about this and that this is the first time this has happened?

    https://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2023/jul/13/former-gentry-teacher-admits-sexual-relationship/

    So this happened ten years ago. Once it was found to there were plenty of people to corroborate. Also zero chance a man would only get 58 days in jail for this crime.

    These stories are widespread and common. Why are so many predators in our schools and why is there no alarm and little to no action being taken to address it by the organizations in question? We all get that the police arrest them when they find proof of the crime, often years and perhaps several more victims after the point. However the police are just mopping up the mess that has already happened. Nothing is being done by schools to find and prevent these actions and remove individuals like this from their ranks.

    That needs to change!
     
  2. HonestJoe

    HonestJoe Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    This kind of thing isn't reported because it is commonplace, it's reported because it is comparatively rare, and thus "news" and, of course, because it is the kind of news that attracts a lot of attention and so makes more money (especially if you can spin up the story or run it with photos of attractive people). Just because you see lots of "news" articles about this doesn't automatically mean it is especially common.

    Clearly teachers spend a lot of time around children and thus have greater access than anyone other than parents and thus will both attract the kind of people who are that way inclined but also create lots of risk of "crimes of opportunity" too. I think it remans the case that the majority of child sex abuse is committed by close family members though, so I'm not convinced teachers are over-represented in the issue.

    Obviously plenty is done by schools and related institutions to identify offenders and protect children but a lot of the initial inappropriate contact will be made online and a lot of the actual abuse will happen outside the school. Just because there are some high profile cases reported in the news doesn't mean no efforts are being made to prevent it nor does it mean no potential abusers are identified before they do anything significant (which means it will be unlikely to be reported).

    If you're demanding something "needs to change", you really need to give an idea of what, actually understanding what is being done at the moment and explaining what you feel should be done differently.
     
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  3. trumptman

    trumptman Newly Registered

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    Many of these stories have the actions only being uncovered when the teacher or education employee is arrested. In short I simply do not believe that these were the only instances, that no one else knew or suspected or that many other boundary breaching behaviors didn't occur before the ones that led to their arrest.

    So in the one instance you have an administrator of a middle school who was contacting a high school student, using social media and information from her private school records and so on. I think it said he had worked there for twenty years. Do you really think this was his first attempt at this?

    Many of these news articles are the same way. A lot of the low level stuff before the arrests has to be occurring, being ignored and not being acted on which would prevent all the actual crimes.

    You don't have to prove a crime before you fire a teacher or principal. You just have to prove they aren't acting professionally. Let's use the administrator again. Let's say he was caught accessing the student information and gee this student isn't at his site since he works at a middle school and the student in question is 16 years old. He hasn't broken the law but if there isn't some question as to why he would be accessing those records, then something is wrong. Additionally if he is found to have access the students records without a proper need then he should be fired even if he hasn't broken a law.
     
  4. Gateman_Wen

    Gateman_Wen Well-Known Member

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    Lock his ass up and throw away the key.

    And actually many things are being done by most districts to prevent this kinda thing.
     
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  5. HonestJoe

    HonestJoe Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    Not at all. My question is whether this is really a new or increasing problem just because you are now noticing more news reports about it. These kind of inappropriate relationships between teachers and students have always happened and I see no reason to assume they're significantly more likely to happen today. I would suggest they're actually more likely to be discovered, investigated and acted on today than they might have been in the past, that the news reports are evidence of more teachers being formally brought to book rather than being ignored or just quietly moved on (as was found to have happened in a lot of religious organisations in the past too).

    Obviously we'd all want such problems to be identified and stopped as early as possible but that isn't as straight forwards as you'd like to imagine and pushing too far in that direction risks too many false accusations or excessive restrictions. And for all of the cases where prior behaviour or events are identified, they is much easier to recognise in isolation and with hindsight than at the time, among the mass of all the normal things happening around it.

    There is always more that could be done with this kind of thing in all sorts of different fields, but actually making that happen isn't simple. Humans are flawed animals and no system or process is perfect. But again, none of that supports your assertions that nobody is doing anything to try to prevent it.
     
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  6. trumptman

    trumptman Newly Registered

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    It always happens. It's always going to happen. Perhaps some sacrifice to the fates will change something.

    No we can make something happen. We don't have to be fatalists just casting about hoping the fates smile kindly on us today.
     
  7. HonestJoe

    HonestJoe Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    I'm not being a fatalist, I'm being a realist. This has always happened and will always continue to happen. We're never going to eliminate the attraction some adults will have to children, especially in the context of teenagers.

    There are things that can be done to minimise the risks and identify problems early and effectively and, despite your empty assertions, much of that is being done. There could well be more that could be done, in general terms or specifically where the cases you referenced happened. You can't just shout "Do something!" and call it a solution though. You need to understand what is already being done and make concrete proposals on what else could be done. If you won't (or can't) do that, you're contributing less than nothing.
     
  8. kazenatsu

    kazenatsu Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    this is from the article:

    According to authorities, Erickson had been inappropriately communicating with a 16-year-old high school girl on Snapchat for at least a week before his arrest. He posed as a younger adult male and made suggestive comments that signaled he wanted to engage in sexual conduct with the minor, authorities said. While Erickson initially posed as a younger adult, he came forward to the teen that he was a middle school prinicpal and proved his identity by using the "school district database information to convince the 16-year-old girl who he really was," according to the sheriff's office. According to authorities, Erickson attempted to meet up with the girl before his arrest, which included allegedly showing up to the minor's home, but the minor did not go outside.

    So he did not actually meet the girl or find out about the girl from working at the school.

    And while this sounds rather creepy, he did not end up having sex with her.

    Even in the hypothetical case this girl was willing or did have sex with him, this would be much closer on the spectrum towards "statutory rape" (because of age) rather than "rape" or "molestation".
    (And yes, I realize situations like this do not always fit entirely into neat categories)

    There are worse cases then this.

    It looks like they did charge him with third-degree attempted rape, because this may not have really been rape so much, if it had happened.
    But I think even "third-degree attempted rape" is a somewhat of an excessive charge, for seeking sex.
    I'm thinking they probably charged him with that because his creepy behavior suggested he might have forced himself on her, if he had had the chance. I'm still not sure it's fair to make the legal assumption that he would have.

    I guess there's not really a good law that fits this situation exactly. So they're just trying to find a law that they think most closely fits and shoehorn the crime to fit into the criminal charge, even though it's not really a perfect fit precisely.
     

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