Reply to Whitman Teacher and Crew Coach Arrested

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote]1) The Whitman teacher ( Kirkland) showed a pattern over at least 8 years of inviting/ allowing female students who were in his Junior Year History class to hang out in his classroom during Free Periods. HELLO MCPS Principals and Superintendant NOT enforcing basic protocols to prevent sexual abuse. The red flag is why is this 39 year old male teacher giving up his break time ( Free period) to socialize with 16, 17, 18 year old girls ? What's he getting out of that ? Is he tutoring ? Do the parents know? Is anyone clocking the time in/out ? NOPE Shouldn't a NORMAL adult prefer the company of his ADULT colleagues in the Staff lounge ?? How could a school principal miss this one ?[/quote]

Obviously this predator was abusing his position, but I'd like to unpack the above a little bit more. How was he only inviting female students?

I'm coming to this as an adult whose life and mental health were absolutely saved by kind teachers who let me hang out in their classrooms before school, and sometimes during lunches. As a queer weirdo in a rural nightmare of a town, I didn't have a lot of friends my own age and was subjected to vicious bullying in the halls, at free periods, etc. [b]Just having a teacher open up a classroom to me where I could do my work, and maybe [u]chat a little if they weren't busy[/b][/u] was life-changing.

Have we lost the ability to extend that to kids, under the circumstances? [/quote]

What you describe shows that your own teachers respected the boundaries and signaled to you that there were boundaries. As you recall it, they would chat “a little if they weren’t busy” which indicates that they somehow conveyed to you, whether via words, actions, or body language, that their first duty was their teaching responsibilities/paperwork, etc. And that spending time in their classroom was an exceptional allowance that wasn’t always the norm. 
They weren’t making you feel that the classroom was an extension of socializing space. [b][/b]Nor that you were their social equal, close confidant, or pal. In contrast, the Whitman teacher apparently treated his role that way.[b][/b]
Could teachers be prevented from the latter approach, while still allowing for situations like you had? I think so—as the PP above said, things like having a second teacher present would be one potential way to address it.[/quote]

Yes, key difference .

We had a pedophile PE/ Health teacher in my MS in Suburban Philadelphia . His 1st writing assignment in MS health class was to assign everyone an essay to write, “ what has been the most challenging emotional experience of your life so far and how did it affect you “ - these essays were then “ submitted to him to read

In other words, “ tell me where you are wounded most , reveal to me if you have home supports or lack them and share with me how neady you might currently be ?”

No Principal, division leader or Anyone supervised him . He then honed in on the girls who - based on their essay - were vulnerable - knowing as a man also 30 years or so their senior - just what buttons to push .

He would sit in the student seating with the HS girls at assemblies, he would sit back with the students in the bus on school trips ( not with the faculty up front ) He planned his route to work in his car based on the walking  commute of MS girls he was targeting

He was married with 4 kids - and the kicker - NONE of his colleagues or supervisors said a word - for almost 20 years until he got a teen Pregnant

Bottom
Line : schools  are places where adults who couldn’t make it in an adult only work force go to prey upon the vulnerable and hide - not because people don’t believe kids - but because of something more cynical : teachers value their quote “ relationships with their colleagues “ and their job security MORE than kids pr anything that got them into the teaching profession .

Given the choice between a colleague and a kid - they choose to stick with the “ faculty club “ at their school

Yes, we have Pedophiles, but they can only operate where their adult colleagues let them  [/quote]

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