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Jerry Moore (Admin)
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School Teacher Pleads Guilty to Sexual Assault Charges
KTLA News: Los Angeles
December 22, 2008
LOS ANGELES -- A veteran Santa Monica middle school teacher was immediately sentenced to 14 years in state prison after he pleaded guilty today to 10 sexual abuse and other counts involving nine female students.
61-year-old Thomas Arthur Beltran also was ordered by Los Angeles Superior Court Judge William Hollingsworth to register as a sex offender upon his release from prison, according to the District Attorney's Office.
Just before a hearing was to begin to determine if there was enough evidence to require him to stand trial, Beltran entered his plea to seven counts of continuous sexual abuse, two counts of lewd act on a child and one count of sexual penetration by a foreign object on a child under 14, according to Deputy District Attorney Robin Sax Katzenstein.
Beltran admitted sexually molesting two other victims but he was not charged in those case due to the statute of limitations, according to the District Attorney's Office.
Beltran, a seventh-grade teacher of English as a Second Language, was arrested on May 3 after a 12-year-old student alleged she had been repeatedly sexually assaulted by her teacher in the classroom.
Beltran taught at Lincoln Middle School for about 20 years and had been with the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District for 30 years.
Ten other girls later made similar allegations, authorities said.
Kingsway educator guilty in cover-up of sex case
By JEREMY ROSEN • Camden (NJ) Courier-Post Staff
December 22, 2008
WOODBURY — A suspended Kingsway Regional High School department chairwoman and coach was found guilty Thursday of trying to persuade a Kingsway student to recant statements about a sexual relationship with a former teacher.
Emma Painter, the suspended health and physical education chairwoman and head field hockey coach, faces mandatory jail time, officials said.
Erica Umosella, the former health teacher, pleaded guilty Feb. 1 to three charges resulting from her sexual relationship with a then-17-year-old Kingsway student. Umosella, 29, is serving a probation term and has forfeited her right to public employment in the state, officials said. The relationship, which the student acknowledged, happened at the high school in Woolwich during the 2006-07 school year, they said.
Painter, 46, of Clayton was convicted of second-degree misconduct and third-degree witness tampering and faces a maximum 15 years in state prison, according to Gloucester County Prosecutor's office spokesman Bernie Weisenfeld. Painter faces a mandatory minimum of five years for the official misconduct charge, Weisenfeld said.
Umosella, of Glassboro, entered a plea agreement in which her first-degree aggravated sexual assault and third-degree aggravated criminal sexual contact charges were dropped, Weisenfeld said. She was convicted of third-degree official misconduct, he said.
In announcing Painter's verdict, Superior Court Judge M. Christine Allen-Jackson said Painter tried to convince the student through verbal and written communications that she held Umosella's job and freedom in her hands, Weisenfeld said. Allen-Jackson said Painter "told (the student) what she should do to get Miss Umosella out of jail," he said.
"The defendant also attacked the core of the judicial system by trying to change the testimony of a witness," said senior assistant Gloucester County Prosecutor Audrey Curwin.
Painter's attorney, Vincent Campo of Woodbury, could not be reached Friday for comment.
Painter, who Kingsway school officials said is suspended without pay pending sentencing, continues to be held on $10,000 bail, Weisenfeld said. Her sentencing is scheduled for Feb. 13.
Ex-3rd grade teacher charged with videotaping girls
Compiled from news service reports / North Central CT Journal Inquirer
December 23, 2008
A former Bridgeport teacher who’s already facing sex assault and child porn charges has been arrested on allegations he secretly taped girls changing into Halloween costumes. Milford police on Monday charged Thomas Bavedas, 39, with nine counts of voyeurism and nine counts of risk of injury. Bavedas, of Milford, had been free after posting bail in the other cases, but a judge Monday ordered him held in lieu of $500,000 bond. His case was continued to Jan. 6. In May, he resigned as a third-grade teacher at Waltersville School after being charged with sexually assaulting a 12-year-old girl. Police later charged him with having tens of thousands of child porn images on his home computer. Those cases are pending. His lawyer, Edmund Collier, had said Bavedas was seeking help and that the “vast majority” of the images found on his computer wouldn’t be considered child porn. He also said Bavedas was a good teacher by all accounts. Bavedas is accused in the new arrest of using a hidden camera to tape girls changing into costumes in a closet in his classroom last year. Police said they found a hole in the wall shaped to hold a video camera. “He arranged activities to be performed by female students so he could get desirable video shots of them that were sexually satisfying to him,” Sgt. Jesus Ortiz Jr. said.
Former Teacher Gets Probation In Sex Case
Associated Press via KCCI: Des Moines, IA
December 24, 2008
INDIANOLA, Iowa -- A former Norwalk teacher accused of having sex with a student has been sentenced to a year's probation.
Ryan Janssen also must complete sex offender treatment and register as a sex offender.
Warren County Attorney Bryan Tingle said Janssen was sentenced Monday after pleading guilty to lascivious acts with a minor.
Janssen was charged in August after a recent high school graduate claimed she had a two-year relationship with him, beginning when she was a 16-year-old junior at Norwalk High School.
Janssen was originally charged with sexual exploitation. He faced up to five years in prison.
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Jerry Moore (Admin)
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24 teachers disciplined by state
List includes 2 former teachers in Pittsburgh Public Schools
By Eleanor Chute, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
December 26, 2008
The state Department of Education has taken action against the teaching certificates of 24 educators.
The actions were announced this week but taken as far back as July.
The list includes two former teachers in Pittsburgh Public Schools, Joseph Abraham and Ryan Novak, both of whom taught at Pittsburgh Allderdice High School.
Mr. Abraham, who coordinated the robotics program, surrendered his vocational instructional certificate in lieu of discipline. He pleaded guilty to corruption of minors and indecent assault in a case involving inappropriately touching a 15-year-old student and offering to pay her for sex. He was sentenced to three years' probation.
Mr. Novak's certificate in technology education was revoked. An industrial arts teacher, he pleaded guilty to two counts of corruption of minors and was sentenced to two years' probation. The charges were related to an ongoing sexual relationship with a 16-year-old girl he once coached in soccer at Pittsburgh Schenley.
Other actions against teachers serving area students, and their most recent district, were:
• Peter C. Schepis Jr., substitute teacher and middle school football coach, South Fayette, certificate surrendered in lieu of discipline because "educator sent inappropriate e-mails containing sexually explicit narratives and photographs taken on school property."
• Derek J. Russo, science teacher, Beaver Area School District, certificate in biology and general science surrendered in lieu of discipline because "educator provided alcohol to minors."
• Michelle Palmer, also known as Michelle Fayish, elementary special education teacher, Westmoreland Intermediate Unit, public reprimand as a result of allegations involving inappropriate discipline of a special education student.
• Kim S. Crummie, Valley Middle School principal, New Kensington-Arnold School District, instructional and administrative certificates suspended beginning May 7, 2008, because of allegations that he solicited an undercover officer in a public restroom.
• Julie A. Miller, also known as Julie A. Dorwart, reading specialist, Agora Cyber Charter School, public reprimand for compromising the integrity of the Pennsylvania System of School Assessment test.
The full list is available on the Internet at www.pdenewsroom.state.pa.us, click "recent teacher certification actions."
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Jerry Moore (Admin)
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Detention at home is denied for ex-teacher in Turlock student sex case
By Merrill Balassone / Modesto (CA) Bee
December 18, 2008
 Do you know why teachers keep having sex with minors despite hundreds of them being caught each year? Because the vast majority of them who are doing it don't get caught.
A former Pitman High School teacher sentenced to nine months in jail for having sex with his 17-year-old student won't get to serve his sentence at home, the Stanislaus County Sheriff's Department said Wednesday.
Carl Troy Kubicek, 36, was denied the department's home detention program, which allows defendants to serve their jail time from home wearing an electronic ankle monitor, said Deputy Royjindar Singh, Sheriff's Department spokesman.
"This is not a slap on the wrist; it is a clear message," said Deputy District Attorney Annette Rees.
"Of all places, the children in our community should be safe from exploitation at their school and from their teacher or coach.
"I hope Mr. Kubicek will spend many unpleasant hours in jail considering the damage his selfish gratification has caused."
Kubicek began his sentence Tuesday at the Stanislaus County Public Safety Center in Modesto. He will be required to serve at least two-thirds of his sentence, Singh said. Kubicek still may apply for an alternative work program that allows inmates to live at home and do community service for the final three months of a sentence, Singh said.
Last week, state officials revoked Kubicek's California teaching credential. His wife has filed for divorce, according to Frank Carson, Kubicek's defense attorney.
Carson called the decision to deny Kubicek home detention "unjust" and "arbitrary."
"I know of convicted sex offenders that get home detention. I know people that beat people that get home detention," Carson said. "I think everyone made a mountain out of a molehill."
Singh said each case is reviewed and recommendations are made by a sergeant in the Sheriff's Department's alternative programs unit. Carson said he appealed the decision three times.
Kubicek did not get state prison time for the two felony charges of unlawful sex, mainly because the former student, now 18, asked for leniency.
According to a probation report, Kubicek admitted to more than 30 sexual encounters with the teenager over five months.
Former teacher pleads guilty to sex with student
Ex-Travis High School educator will never teach in Texas again, prosecutor says.
By Molly Bloom / Austin (TX) American-Statesman staff
December 18, 2008
A former Travis High School teacher pleaded guilty Wednesday in Travis County District Court to having a sexual relationship with an 18-year-old Travis High student in May.
Allen James Cole, 35, a government teacher who resigned after his arrest, was sentenced to four years of probation and surrendered his Texas teaching license, Assistant District Attorney Allison Benesch said.
Cole is barred from teaching in any state and from having any contact with the student, Benesch said.
Cole must perform 200 hours of community service and pay a $1,000 fine. State law does not require Cole to register as a sex offender. His lawyer, Leslie Halasz, did not return calls for comment Wednesday.
In Texas, it is a second-degree felony punishable by up to 20 years in prison and a fine of up to $10,000 for a school employee to have sex with a student attending his or her school if the student is not the teacher's spouse.
"This was not a crime because she was underage," Benesch said. "This was a crime because he was her teacher."
According to an affidavit, the student told police that she went to Cole's South Austin apartment several times during the first week of May and had sex with him.
Shepherdstown teacher faces sex charges
By MATTHEW UMSTEAD / Hagerstown (MD) Herald-Mail
December 19, 2008
SHEPHERDSTOWN, W.Va. — A 51-year-old Jefferson County Schools teacher is in federal custody, charged as the result of an Internet sex sting conducted by police in Virginia, according to records filed in federal district court in Alexandria, Va.
Shepherdstown Elementary School art teacher Douglas E. Hunt of Charles Town on Wednesday waived his right to a preliminary hearing on felony counts of enticement of a minor and (interstate) travel with intent to engage in illicit sexual conduct, according to an affidavit and documents filed with the court.
Hunt was denied bond in a detention hearing held by U.S. Magistrate Judge Thomas Rawles Jones Jr. Further proceedings will be held before a grand jury, records show.
The court concluded “there is no condition or combination of conditions that will reasonably assure the defendant’s appearance as required and the safety of the community,” according to a detention order signed Thursday by Jones.
Hunt was arrested in Leesburg, Va., on Dec. 4, less than 24 hours after responding by e-mail to an advertisement on Craigslist.org that offered “fun times” with a 38-year-old woman and her two daughters, according to the affidavit filed by FBI special agent Chad Gallagher.
The ad, titled “my2 gurls and me - 99 (ctown/leesbrg/hf),” was posted by Leesburg Police and Loudoun County (Va.) Sheriff’s department detectives, according to the affidavit.
In e-mails with detectives beginning Dec. 3 at 7:33 p.m., Hunt said he was married and had to be discreet about meeting the woman and her 12- and 13-year-old daughters, according to the affidavit.
Hunt used a phone at Shepherdstown Elementary School to call the woman less than two hours before driving to the parking lot of the Hampton Inn & Suites along Fort Evans Road in Leesburg, Va., to meet her, according to the affidavit.
Leesburg Police Detective Lisa Kara posed as the woman, according to the affidavit.
“Are you still cool with $200 for both of (the girls)?” Kara asked Hunt just before he gave her $220 in cash in the hotel parking lot, according to the affidavit.
Hunt was arrested shortly after he began walking toward the hotel entrance after Kara had given him a room key and told him where the girls were staying, according to the affidavit.
Jefferson County Schools Superintendent Susan K. Wall said in a press conference Friday morning that she did not expect Hunt to return to the school where he had taught full time for 11 years. A permanent substitute teacher has been assigned to teach Hunt’s classes. Hunt also has coached the Jefferson High School varsity boys soccer team since 2004.
No personnel action has been taken by the Jefferson County Board of Education, and Wall could not comment on his employment status Friday.
A letter mailed to parents of the approximately 300 students at Shepherdstown Elementary School indicates the alleged misconduct did not involve Jefferson County students.
Like with any teacher’s extended absence, Wall said she wanted to inform the public about the situation. She also noted the school district’s cooperation with police in the criminal investigation.
“It is surprising, and it’s a situation that as a (school) system, we don’t like to have to deal with, but we will take appropriate action,” Wall said.
Any questions or concerns should be directed to school principal Suzanne Offutt or Assistant Superintendent Patrick W. Blanc, officials said.
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Jerry Moore (Admin)
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Records: Teacher admits 'inappropriate' behavior
BY CHASITY GUNN • Rutherford County (TN) Daily News Journal with lots of reader comments
December 17, 2008
EDITOR'S NOTE: The Daily News Journal mistakenly identified one student and partially identified another in a front page image in today's edition about this case. Those names should have been redacted as it is The DNJ's policy to not identify juveniles in such cases. That image has been removed from dnj.com. The DNJ sincerely regrets the error and any harm it has caused the students and their families.
Jimmy Hart, Executive Editor
A suspended Blackman High School teacher "made partial admissions" to a sheriff's detective of inappropriate behavior with two female students, one of whom claims the teacher "wanted to see more skin" in electronic photos sent to him, according to court documents.
Jason Lancaster, 37, was recently indicted on three counts of solicitation of a minor for aggravated statutory rape, four counts of sexual exploitation of a minor and three counts of solicitation of a minor to commit statutory rape by an authority figure.
During an October interview with Detective Mickey McCullough of Rutherford County Sheriff's Department, Lancaster "made partial admissions as well as admissions to behaving inappropriately and/or unlawfully" toward two female students, according to statement from McCullough on file in Rutherford County Circuit Court.
Lancaster, who was a Blackman English teacher, was interviewed by McCullough on Oct. 29 after he was advised of his rights and waived them, according to court documents. The interview was audio and video recorded.
Lancaster was suspended from his teaching position without pay the following day, but he has garnered a good deal of online support from the outset.
Several readers, including those who say they're current and former students, have posted comments on previous stories featured on dnj.com in support of Lancaster, and more recently a Facebook group, "LANCASTER—not guilty!," was created by someone who identified herself as Blackman High School student.
Roughly 550 people have joined the online group, the majority of whom support Lancaster and say he was a caring teacher, a married Christian man and not likely to commit the allegations. A few members of the group say the believe it's possible Lancaster did the alleged acts.
According to the court documents, Lancaster and the two female students communicated through the popular social networking Web sites Facebook and Myspace as well as through Yahoo Messenger and text messages.
The Daily News Journal does not identify alleged victims of sex-related crimes.
A 17-year-old junior stated "she had a school girl crush" on Lancaster, according to an affidavit made by Detective Ralph Mayercik. Starting last year, she communicated with Lancaster "in person, via cellular phone calls, cellular text messages and on the Internet."
According the affidavit, the student said that at some point "her boyfriend and her parents found out about the communication between her and Lancaster; and they advised her to come forward with this information."
On Monday, Lancaster's attorney Derek Howard of Murfreesboro filed a motion to waive his appearance at an arraignment hearing, said a Rutherford County court clerk. His next court date is Jan. 9 in Circuit Court, and his plea date is scheduled for Jan. 22.
Lancaster, who had been teaching in county schools since 1993, will remain suspended until the criminal proceedings are completed. His personnel file shows no prior reprimands or disciplinary actions.
Contacted as his office Tuesday, Howard said, through an assistant, that he wasn't prepared to comment on the case.
If convicted, Lancaster would more than likely face two to six years in prison, said Laural Hemanway, the county's assistant district attorney.
Although "highly unlikely," Lancaster could be sentenced to 26 years if found guilty on all 10 counts, given the maximum sentence and if he were ordered to serve consecutive terms, Hemanway explained.
In her statement to police, the 17-year-old student said that last year, Lancaster asked to see photos of her "in exchange of a note signed by him to another teacher," according to the affidavit. The student agreed and sent him a picture of her in panties.
But Lancaster "wanted to see more skin. She then showed him a picture of herself in a corset and panties. He stated that would be fine, and he wrote her the requested note," according to the student's version of events.
In the affidavit, the student said she chatted with Lancaster via Myspace Instant Messenger "where they had conversations of a sexual nature," but she has deleted all the text messages and photos.
A printed version of a screen shot of what is allegedly Lancaster's Myspace page is in the court documents. The profile name is "Dr." and the Myspace URL is listed as "lancaster j."
According to the page, Lancaster's age is listed as 27, and his zodiac sign is Capricorn, both of which are incorrect. Lancaster is 37 and was born on Nov. 9, making him a Scorpio.
However, some information on the Myspace page matches: He is a teacher and married. The hometown is listed as Murfreesboro, and the page states that he is working on a doctorate in education from Trevecca Nazarene University in Nashville.
A university spokeswoman confirmed that Lancaster received his doctorate from Trevecca in May 2007. It's unclear when the Myspace page was created.
The page could not be found Tuesday during a DNJ Web search.
According to the court records, McCullough witnessed two instant messages allegedly from Lancaster asking another female student to communicate with him via the Internet, according to the affidavit. The messages were accompanied with a picture of Lancaster.
The records don't contain an affidavit from the second female student, only a picture of her cell phone with Lancaster listed as a contact and a page of her Yahoo e-mail account of messages allegedly sent to Lancaster.
County school teachers are told through training workshops not to share personal cell phone numbers, e-mails or Web sites with students to maintain a professional buffer, said James Evans, county schools spokesman.
Evans said the district doesn't have a specific policy barring teachers from communicating with students on social Web sites such as Facebook and Myspace because those activities are done on the teacher's personal time.
Swim coach arrested for paying students to pose nude
By The Associated Press via the Greensboro (NC) News & Record
December 17, 2008
CHARLOTTE (AP) — Authorities say a high school teacher and swim coach has been arrested and suspended after he paid two students to pose for nude pictures.
Concord police Capt. Gary Hatley told the Charlotte Observer that 39-year-old Michael Randolph Tye Jr. was arrested Monday after one of the two male Independence High School students told authorities about the photos.
Hatley says the pictures were found on Tye's digital camera.
Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools, spokeswoman Cynthia Robbins says Tye has been suspended with pay. He worked at the district's Morgan alternative school for eight years before moving to Independence High for the past six years.
Tye remains in the Cabarrus County Jail with a $100,000 bond. It wasn't immediately clear if he had an attorney.
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Jerry Moore (Admin)
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'Cougars' preying in the classroom
Why are so many female teachers targeting boys for sexual abuse?
By Drew Zahn / WorldNetDaily
December 20, 2008
In the wake of one the most publicized stories of a female teacher sexually abusing an underage student, the case of the beautiful Debra LaFave, MSNBC anchor Contessa Brewer asked a psychologist TV guest "why someone who looks like a living Barbie Doll would need to have sex with a young kid."
LaFave was 23 years old in 2004 when it was discovered that she had been having sex with her student, a 14-year-old boy.
At the time, LaFave became a media sensation for her stunning good looks and the story – a woman seeking the sexual attention of a barely adolescent boy – that so crossed up society's expectations of who sex offenders are and what they look like.
National statistics, however, demonstrate that LaFave's case is far from unusual.
According to a major 2004 study commissioned by the U.S. Department of Education – the most authoritative investigation to date – nearly 10 percent of U.S. public school students have been targeted with unwanted sexual attention by school employees, and in those cases, 40 percent of the perpetrators were women.
Titled "Educator Sexual Misconduct: A Synthesis of Existing Literature" by Virginia Commonwealth University Professor Charol Shakeshaft, the report brought to light staggering statistics.
Compare the numbers with the much-publicized Catholic Church scandal.
A study by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops concluded 10,667 young people were sexually mistreated by priests between 1950 and 2002.
Shakeshaft's study, however, estimates that roughly 290,000 students experienced some sort of physical sexual abuse by a public school employee between 1991 and 2000 alone.
If female employees are responsible for 40 percent of those crimes, that means America could be facing an average of more than 11,000 instances of women abusing students in school each year – in other words, more cases in one year than were reported in 50 years of Catholic priest abuse.
Why would so many trusted teachers, even young, vibrant, beautiful women like Debra LaFave, target children for sexual abuse?
WND spoke with some of the nation's leading experts in the field – including Shakeshaft – for answers to why female teachers would prey on boys and what can be done about it.
Teacher outside, teenager inside
"There's a range of reasons these women are abusing boys," Shakeshaft told WND, "not just one."
"One of the reasons is because they can, because we haven't done in schools what we need to do to stop this from happening," Shakeshaft said. "A second reason is because they are in power positions, and they abuse power just as males abuse power."
Shakeshaft told WND, however, that most of the women who aren't hardened predators – including perplexing cases like LaFave's, where a woman may only grow attached to one boy and wouldn't dream of sexually abusing others – rationalize their romantic fixation because, inside, the teacher feels like a teenager herself.
"Most of these people who cross boundaries have arrested emotional development," Shakeshaft said. "They're putting themselves into the same peer group as their students.
"What they say is, 'I think this person is just the same as I am,'" Shakeshaft explained. "Though they wouldn't say it out loud, they rationalize that the child is really more like a 40-year-old, or that that they are really more like a teenager."
In a 2006 interview with NBC's Matt Lauer, LaFave demonstrated Shakeshaft's explanation.
"The only way that I can describe that is that I felt that I was a peer of theirs," LaFave confessed. "I was just thinking of it as being a young girl who just got caught with her boyfriend."
When played a recording of a phone call LaFave made to her student, she acknowledged of her giggling adolescent demeanor: "That sounds so childish. … That's not something an adult would say."
Gary Schoener, executive director of the Walk-In Counseling Center in Minneapolis and one of the nation's foremost pioneers in working with sex offenders, agrees that many of these teachers see themselves as peers with the teens they abuse, but warns there may be other factors as well.
How she sees him
"These cases have a lot of variety to them," Schoener told WND. "The women are not all the same, and they don't all fit a pattern."
Schoener is a licensed psychologist who has worked for decades with teachers who sexually abuse their students. Along with former WICC Clinic Director John Gonsiorek, Schoener developed one of the first and most widely respected tools for assessing professionals – therapists, clergy, teachers and others – caught in sexual misconduct.
"What does the woman see in the boy?" Schoener pondered. "Obviously you have some where [the students] are 17 years old and they're mature for their age, at least physically, and you can more readily see how somebody could develop fantasies.
"But then when you get the 14-year-old boy who is immature, why did this woman who was married, who was not known to have marital problems, who had kids, why would she go in this direction?" Schoener asked.
"Most of these women don't know the answer," Schoener explained. "But if you ask them what they're feeling, they would say, 'This kid is the most honest person I've met in my life. He's much more honest than adult males.' What you hear a lot from women is very similar to what you hear from men who prefer girls: that they're pure, that they're innocent."
Schoener explained that the teachers exhibit thoughts and patterns very similar to a psychological fallacy called counter-transference, which is when a caregiver in authority – such as a therapist or a teacher – connects with some virtue in the subject, but then distorts that into a romanticized idealization based more on the caregiver's own projection than on reality.
"They absolutely romanticize this young kid," Schoener said, "and somehow in their mind make him into this sensitive, caring, thoughtful, honest, insightful ideal."
But, Schoener explained, "Each of these things they're describing and they feel very strongly are not things that could have come from actual experience with the kid. … These are gut feelings. In this context of the teacher-student relationship, somehow the kid becomes bigger than life, and they react to him like their great, fantasied love."
Scheoner told WND that the one factor he sees in the vast majority of cases where female teachers abuse boys is fantasy about the student's character that does not match what others observe.
"It is very much driven by emotional connection, rather than sexual drive," Schoener said. "In a huge number of the cases we've seen – not all, some are largely sexual – the thing was driven by a fantasy where the kid was seen as this wonderful human being and age ceased to matter. In fact, reality ceased to matter."
"The sexual turn-on is not the first thing that occurs," Schoener summarized. "It begins with an emotional fixation on a kid. After that, chances they take don't matter any more. They risk careers. They do crazy things like planning on how they'll live together after the wedding. They get in trouble for the sex, but it started with irrational feelings and thoughts."
What's the harm?
When LaFave's story broke in the news, as has happened with other stories of attractive teachers sexually abusing their male students, some questioned whether the boys were truly harmed. After all, it was argued, many teenage boys would see the wooing of a beautiful woman as a good thing, regardless of her age.
Following another publicized case of teacher abuse, Steven B. Blum, a consulting psychologist to a sex offender program in Nebraska, explained teenage boys don't always see the harm initially.
"Generally the male doesn't feel victimized," Blum told the Los Angeles Times. "A lot of teenage boys would see that as their lucky day."
But the 16-year-old victim of Margaret De Barraicua, a 30-year-old California teacher who pleaded guilty to four counts of statutory rape, did not consider it his "lucky day."
"I'm not the same boy," the student said in a letter read in court in Sacramento. "At school I became the center of attention. Everyone knew my name." The boy was so traumatized, his mother wrote in a letter read in court, that "his hair is falling out."
The father of a Colorado boy molested by Silvia Johnson – who held drug-alcohol-and-sex parties at her home with teenaged schoolboys to be "cool" – told the court the 40-year-old woman "took away my best friend, my hunting buddy. I can't have him back now. He is gone."
Experts agree that, in time, even willing teenage boys coaxed into sex by their authority figures, no matter how attractive, exhibit abused child symptoms.
"Boys and girls who are put in these situations aren't emotionally ready to deal with all the complexities of these relationships," Shakeshaft told WND.
"The lasting effect is very similar to the effects on females: they don't trust people, they have trouble forming intimate relationships, they often feel used, exploited, dirty, ashamed," Shakeshaft explained. "And that often leads to dysfunction in other areas – drug abuse, alcohol abuse, and particularly inability to have intimate relationships."
Dr. Richard B. Gartner, a leading expert and specialist in field of treating men with history of sexual abuse, writes in a commentary on his website, "Many sexually abused boys grow up distrustful, considering people dishonest, malevolent, and undependable. They often become frightened of emotional connection and isolate themselves."
"Confusing affection with abuse, desire with tenderness," Gartner writes, "sexually abused boys often become men who have difficulty distinguishing among sex, love, nurturance, affection, and abuse. They may experience friendly interpersonal approaches as seductive and manipulative. On the other hand, they may not notice when exploitative demands are made on them – they've learned to see these as normal and acceptable."
Shakeshaft told WND, "Historically, if a boy mentioned it, it was not seen as abuse, it was seen as, 'You should be so lucky.' I think that's changing. I think we're seeing a change in that double standard; I think we're seeing people understanding that the issues are the same whether it's a male or a female."
What can be done?
The answer to stopping teachers who prey on their students sexually may be as complex as the answer to what's causing it.
For Shakeshaft, who specializes in educational leadership, the answer is teaching people to spot the warning signs.
"A lot of teachers, if they understood the patterns, would be able to identify them in their colleagues," Shakeshaft told WND. "We hear from other teachers, 'I always suspected something, I was always uncomfortable – I just wasn't sure.' What they didn't have was that body of knowledge that would have led them to identify what was going on."
Shakeshaft warned that fixated predators may be too sly to spot, but with close supervision and a swift, knowledgeable response, the education community may be able to help teachers who are about to cross the line.
"If we keep aware of what these signals are," Shakeshaft said, "we are more likely to be able to intervene and stop them."
Schoener, however, believes the best defense may come from parents.
"I don't think from the teacher end it's very easy to spot," Schoener told WND. Instead, he suggested parents be watchful of how much interchange their children are having with school officials.
"The first warning sign is a kid spending a lot of private time with the teacher," Schoener said. "The second: text messaging and emails that go back and forth. At the grade school, junior high, high school level, most teachers are discouraged from a lot of Internet interaction. Frequent emailing and text messaging are questionable. It would be a rare occasion where a teacher would need to be in that level of contact with a student."
Schoener also warned that parents be clear on the purpose and the chaperoning of all field trips and events outside of school.
Finally, Schoener said, the boundaries of a teacher's role need to be clearly set.
"A teacher's job is not to counsel students past a point," Schoener explained. "Even if the kid really needs help and it's legitimate counseling, it's rare that a teacher should be doing a lot of counseling. That's the school counselor's job. If there are a lot of private meetings, you have to ask yourself what's going on."
But for David Kupelian, WND's managing editor and author of "The Marketing of Evil," the ultimate answer – beyond the necessary watching for warning signs – is rooted in a society that has lost its spiritual moorings.
In an award-winning 2006 Whistleblower article, Kupelian wrote, "Without the understanding of our spiritual origin and destiny – of who we are and what purpose our maker intended for us – we can't possibly understand sex and its intended role in our lives. Instead, all we have driving us are the desires, physical and emotional 'needs,' cravings and compulsions we find welling up from within us."
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In her interview with WND, Shakeshaft bolstered Kupelian's point.
"Part of the problem is bad judgment; part of it is narcissistic behavior, in other words, 'What I want I should get,'" Shakeshaft said.
"The focus here for [these teachers] is that they're looking out for their own needs and not the needs of their kids," Shakeshaft said. "What they're interested in is getting what they want, not doing what they need to do to make sure the students they have are safe. The common denominator is focus on self, focus on their own needs, focus on their own desires."
"That is America today," Kupelian wrote. "In what was once the finest and most robust expression of Western Judeo-Christian civilization and the core values underlying it, most of us, too, have forgotten. … Forgotten the simple, intuitive understanding of right and wrong that we grasped effortlessly when we were innocent children, but which we were later intimidated or seduced into doubting – and abandoning. Forgotten the core truth about man's condition – that he is in reality a 'fallen' being, 'born in sin,' and that his sexual urges must be channeled into marriage."
Kupelian concluded of all the reasons female teachers seek sexual or romantic gratification in children, the largest contributing factor may be a secularized society that has lost a sound basis for teaching both morality and the self-control to exercise it.
"An even more important factor in this sexual-predator epidemic is the fact that 'right' and 'wrong' just aren't real to most of us anymore," Kupelian wrote. "Even if [a female teacher] was attracted sexually to a child, for whatever reasons, it's still wrong to have sex with a 13-year-old. And knowing something is wrong is enough reason not to do it – even if part of us wants to."
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