Reply to Whitman Teacher and Crew Coach Arrested

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Edit

I am a male, aged 33.  "bias toward the ladies" is that as a teacher he treated my female classmates in a more friendly manner than the male students but to a degree that it was [b]NOT[/b] detrimental such as females getting better grades.  In general it is probably not good but many other Whitman teachers or teachers at Wood Acres Elem or professors in college had their biases toward either males or females or students they clearly liked better.  It's a natural human tendency, I have coworkers who I like better than others.

As for the term lady or ladies, I am not sure what a better term is, for me I prefer not to think of 17 year old as girls.  During my WW years they called the female teams the "Lady Vikes" and that was fair game.

Back when I was in high school, it was a different world, smartphones and free texting were still a decade away.  Shipley giving rides didn't set off red flags since crew kids had to be on the Potomac at dawn.  The house thing was weird but at the time not illegal nor against any rules.

That said, we live in a different world today.  I have a two year old son and my wife and I plan on having discussions with him about grooming, and the actions of adults in positions of authority bestowing special favors.[/quote]

Thank you for your honesty there. I think what I draw from your observations is that ---as a high school male--ou thought some things, such as having students at his home, didn't make sense as suitable teacher behavior (or as you say, 'weird'). Other things (rides) didn't set off alarm bells because you rationalized them away, as Shipley expected everyone to do...but they still stood out to you at the time as ways that his behavior deviated from the norm. I think this indicates that teenagers have instincts when something is off, but that they don't trust those instincts or listen to them all the time, probably because no one else questions it, or that it doesn't rise to the level that the teenagers know is black-and-white wrong.

(Btw, fair enough about the 'ladies' terminology). [/quote]

I dont think me being a male really matters here.  I would say as a high school student in an unpleasant environment like Whitman (other students not the staff) I was one of ~420 in my class and one of 200 kids taught by Kirkland (like the city on the Eastside) that year who just wanted to get by.  My goal that year was to take AP Euro and burnish my transcript for college applications.  Weird stuff, rumors and things that aren't right occur all the time on the periphery (not just in HS) but what am I going to do about it if it doesn't impact me directly, it's not really my business.  For years there was rumors that another social studies teacher would have male students "mow his/her lawn" even though s/he lived in an apartment.  It's not that I rationalized this (or Shipley's behavior) or thought it was okay, I didn't really think much of it because ultimately it wasn't my life and I am not out to monitor those relationships.

Life is full of gray areas, zero tolerance and black and white rules don't always work as intended.  For instance I am friends with an old teacher, we still talk to this day.  While I was in high school and middle school we would talk offline and I would get lunch with them.  My parents were aware and didnt have any issues with this, there was a lot of trust and it was abundantly clear that they were not grooming me.  But in today's age, some may see this as weird and creepy.

I am curious to hear from folks who had him as a teacher more recently to see if things changed or if there were other red flags?  17 years ago was a long time ago, I can see now there were signs here and there.  But it was a different time, back then he was the young cool teacher who was only a decade older than his students.

I am wonder how Alan Goodwin or the late Michael Doran (my principal at Pyle and later at Wooton) would have responded to this?  Even though at this point is a parlor game at best.  I would have the utmost confidence in Goodwin in handling the aftermath--he was a man who truly cared about his students.[/quote]

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