Is anyone on earth…
…the least bit surprised at this?
Certainly not the young lady’s mother, who gets the grim satisfaction of being able to say “I told you so.”
The New Neo
A blog about political change, among other things
…the least bit surprised at this?
Certainly not the young lady’s mother, who gets the grim satisfaction of being able to say “I told you so.”
Did not see that coming.
Love the first sentence of the ABC News article:
English teachers weep. Actually, they may not see anything wrong with this sentence.
So how many times did the man brainwash her daughter, anyway?
I see there’s no father in the picture. There should be a father in the picture. There should be a father in the life of every girl until he gives her away at the altar. There should be a father to provide the love, praise, and assurance a girl requires when growing up. There should be a father to confront every man/pervert who takes advantage of such girls. Absent a father, a pervert will provide. Bring back fathered families.
Occam’s,
I bet the creative writing teachers love that sentence. It leaves so much room for interpretation.
GeorgePal said “I see there’s no father in the picture”. Actually, there is. The teacher is the father of a daughter one year younger than the 18-year old he ran off with.
I remember the teachers in my old high school. The youngest was a man about 30. The rest were in their thirties or older. The men were all vets of WWII. Two of the women had been in the WAVES. I cannot for a minute imagine that any of them would have had an improper relationship with any student. They were models of mature conduct and serious about teaching. It’s obvious that something has gone very wrong in our schools when this kind of story has become so common. Of course in those days (the late 40s) and in our small village, amoral conduct would have been an occasion for severe punishment. Maybe we have lost some of that.
I was admonished for dating a 26 year old woman when i was 18. Of course i ended it abruptly after 52 days of sheer bliss. 🙂
My stepmother is five years older than me. In 1975 she married my 38 year old father when she was 18.
It was not a happy marriage, but for ten years it was interesting. Heh.
I actually suspect this is a false accusation, though it might make her mom happy.
The guy is scum not for dating an 18 year old, but for abandoning his family. I hold men and women accountable for their wives, husbands and children which is why I’m so pissed off at all the defenses of divorce.
LOL, It’s a claim, not a conviction. While it certainly suggests something might be going on, I’m sorry, I’m getting REALLY sick of this sexist “Cougars OK, Wolves Should DIE DIE DIE” crap.
I have no idea what happened here, either between him and the most recent girl or in the past with this other one, but a single claim does not a pattern make, and the fact is that, while having sex with a 17yo is considered “bad” by modern society, it’s hardly freaking abnormal within human history.
That does not make the behavior “acceptable” but it means it’s not the automatic action of a J.R. Ewing in sheep’s clothing, either. Men can screw up, esp. if they’ve got issues with their own self-worth and their own sexual lives and some girl has daddy issues and she comes on to him in a strong way at the wrong moment — or if they both find themselves vulnerable at the same time in a place which allows both to fail to behave as society considers right and proper — esp. when “right and proper” is NOT the human social norm and IS directly counter to natural human wiring.
Because, like it or not, there IS a societal benefit, historically, to mature men and young women being attracted to one another. That benefit is no longer there for the most part, and it certainly has become discouraged by society. And it’s certainly true that both parties should respect that, yet people are human and flawed and the automatic presumption that this guy is a predator — even if he’s had more than one such “inappropriate” relationship — is bogus and presumptuous.
Maybe he is, maybe he isn’t. But to presume it without anything to support it is in the class of misandrist and sexist “all men are basically evil” garbage that REALLY REALLY hacks me off.
>:-/
BTW, I sort of concur with Brad in the sense that he did leave his family for them, but won’t go so far as to call him scum.
No dispute, that’s probably wrong, but — on the other hand — we know nothing whatsoever about the family life and how this man was living with them. For all any of us know his wife was sexually uninterested and his daughter openly hated his guts.
American Beauty comes to mind, as a matter of obvious fact. And while he should have done the same thing as Lester Burnham, it’s understandable how one can fail to do the right thing, even though it’s still wrong — and not be an evil man or even “scum”…
IGotBupkis: You appear to misunderstood my point. The “this” in my post refers to the couple’s breaking up so quickly, at the instigation of the woman.
By the way, both parties agree that they had no sexual contact till she was over 18. If you accept that that is the case, the question is a teacher/student relationship turning sexual, and whether this is a breach. This sort of thing has certainly happened since time immemorial (in a few days, may write a post on another case involving a very well-known couple), and it can indeed be a case of exploitation by the teacher, although not always by any means (especially the older the student is).
Also, it has nothing to do with demonizing men. The behavior in question (possibly underage person having a romantic/sexual relationship with teacher) may involve a man as the teacher disproportionately often compared to women as the teacher, but women have been prosecuted in recent years with every bit as much zeal as men have, perhaps even more in some cases. The astounding and controversial Mary Kay Letourneau case is a prominent example.
At my HS, at least one teacher had improper relations with a student. She was attracted to large, masculine thugs. She was fired. He stayed.
I’m a bit confused here: the teacher was arrested for a crime committed in 1998?!? What’s the statute of limitations on this?
What’s the fuss people? the greatest example of human virtue to have ever graced humanity-say the Muslims- was prophet Mohammad.
Ahem!
Authentic Islamic Hadiths tell us Mohammad married a 6 year old girl (six yrs old) named Aisha. He was 53 had several wives and a couple of kids at that time.
Her father was a fellow named Abu Bakar, himself a righteous Khalif (chieftain) and a close lieutenant of Muhammad’s. Same Hadiths tell us that upon hearing Mohammad’s intentions for his baby girl Aisha, Abu hesitated at first. Doubted prophet’s sanity.The silver tonged Mohammed convinced Abu this was Allah’s wish conveyed to me(Mohammed) by angel Jibreel, and Allah’s wish must be obeyed for the good of humanity.
Marriage was consummated soon after that, say Hadiths.
And the same Hadiths relate from Aisha: One day I was playing with my friends. I was swinging from a swing. Mom came to me, wiped dust off my face, led me to prophet’s house and left me there. I spent the night with the prophet, where he came to me, sat on my bedside.I was “surprised” (probably because the prophet gave her a new toy to play with).
This pervert, folks, according to 1/5 of humanity that are the Muslims today , is greatest example of a human being who ever lived.Abu Bakar, father of the bride, is considered a righteous man.
So George Pal and others concerned about Jordan’s father and the perv teacher:
Move along folks! Nothing to see here!.