Teachers: HANDS OFF!!

      Yet again, another NC teacher has been charged with sexual assault. This time in Burlington, NC an incident and arrest has occurred in what is becoming an all too familiar happening. Just to name a few........
        

      Williams High School assistant football coach  Robert Alfonzo Clapp, has been charged with one count of statutory sex offense and one count of sexual activity between school personnel and a student.  

       James Meskill, teaching assistant at JH Gunn Elementary School in Mint Hill, was charged with first degree sexual exploitation of a minor and first degree sexual offense against a 2-year-old. Meskill is alleged to have recorded the act on his camera and then took the camera to school to loan to a fellow teacher, without erasing the images and video of the act. 


      Mark Tobin Mercer, math teacher and girls volleyball coach at Jefferson Middle School in Winston-Salem, NC was arrested and charged with having sex with two 14-year-old female students. In total, Mercer is charged with thirteen counts of first-degree statutory rape, eight counts of felony sex offense with a student and eight counts of taking indecent liberties.

      Rodney Donnell Ellis, special needs teacher and coach at Western Harnett High School in Lillington, NC has been charged with having sex with a 17-year-old female student.


      Whew, and that is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to how rampant these crimes have become. Where did the line become so skewed, for a growing ratio of teachers that are thought of as educational-parents to our children, that they have approved it "ok" to sleep with these kids? Is it their upbringing, their want to be loved or desired, negative self-esteem, or the wish to be the "cool teacher"? I wish there was some interpersonal test given at licensure testing to weed out the "predators" (YES I SAID IT) that prey on the children that go to school to learn. 
      Now I know that I am going to receive email after email from those readers that will state "girls aren't built like they were years ago, and neither are female teachers", "the way that girls dress these days they are asking for it" and the ever popular one "we connected. they were so much more mature than other teens their age..we are in love". Regardless of the way that a child is built or dresses, they are still a child. Plain an simple. Nothing changes that until they reach the age of consent and are deemed an adult and can act, live and make decisions on their own. Until that time leave them alone and let them be a child. These predators prey upon these kids daily and have no idea the harm that they do to them. Teens have enough issues without being preyed upon by the only adult in the classroom. But these teachers seem to take advantage of every possible opportunity that they can to snatch the innocence from these children, male and female. 
      When I first started recognizing the problem with the teacher-student issue, it appeared to be mainly female teachers and male students but in no time at all the males have caught up and passed them. Knowing the way that part of society looks at situations of this manner, the numbers may not have been reported correctly when it involved males as frequently as it was when females were involved because when it involves males it's different. Male-student relationships are looked at differently than female-student relationships. For what ever biased reason, it is just that way. It's not right, and I don't agree with that thinking but I hear and notice it all the time. When a male teacher sleeps with a student, he is looked upon as  "the man" while the female teacher is looked at as "OMG! I can't believe she done that!" Why the difference? Both crimes are wrong as hell! 
      The sex of the offender, the beauty, the virility or the sexiness of the teacher doesn't matter either. And the place that they will find out that it REALLY doesn't matter is when they are sentenced and are sent into gen-pop at the local prison. There  is not much "honor among thieves and inmates" but they DO band together in a violent way when they encounter fellow inmates that are charged with sex crimes against childen. So a call to arms to all of those teachers that are thinking about and/or having sex with a student as we speak, in the final words of one the best Spike Lee joints.....WAKE UP!!!! Sex isn't worth your freedom or your career! Even if a 14 year old says "Yes, I want to have sex with you.", you as the educator and peer should have enough restraint to mentor the child toward a positive direction and tell them "No".
     That is all! My rant is over for the day!