Child Molester Glorified by Dateline NBC...

Speaking as a mother and a teacher in WA state (I currently work with a gal who worked in the same school as MKL):

NO IT IS WRONG! In WA we have a morals clause that as teachers we are entrusted with the lives of these children. Our job is to teach them. Yes you can love a student on a variety of levels, plutonic levels! This is wrong. One of my sons is a 6th grader. There would not be enough places to hide all the pieces of a teacher or any adult who would allow themselves or him to participate in a relationship of this nature. If she loved Villi (and her own family - remember she was an adulteress) she would have waited until he was of legal consenting age and maturity. I have read almost all the articles/books about her, and on every level it is wrong.

If you find you are "in love" with a child (anyone under 18) and you are an adult. You must love them enough to let them grow up and discover who they are. You must control yourself and act as a well balanced adult would and wait.

But it is still VERY disturbing!
 
S.A. said:
Our job is to teach them. Yes you can love a student on a variety of levels, plutonic levels! !
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You mean platonic, right?

Diddling a student is illegal, no question. But this "child" is now an adult, with the right to make his own decisions, and he has decided to stay with his lover. He is not being coerced, or exploited or molested.
 
As far as I know he's not an adult for another 5 years in our legal system
 
According the show, he's old enough to buy wine. That would make him 21 in the US, right? He's also old enough to have custody of his children.
 
I meant when the incident began, once he turned 18 i don't give a rat's butt what he does with his time as long as it's legal
 
Ms.Bubbles said:
According the show, he's old enough to buy wine. That would make him 21 in the US, right? He's also old enough to have custody of his children.
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Yes...I am surprised that after 8 years he is still interested in her.

Even in places like Canada, where our age of legal consent is 14, one cannot give legal consent to a person in a 'place of authority/trust' such as a teacher.
 
I watched some of the show. I think the woman is a nut. If she genuinely had feelings for the kid...she should have been the adult and kept a lid on it until he was of age. Or even no longer her student.
 
Yes, but what of the situation now? The crime is in the past. That's primarily what the Dateline show was there to depict--the fact that they are still together, still "in love", that they even have children now, despite her being sent to jail. An extraordinary situation.
 
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Sorry for the long post, but as a teacher. . .

As a teacher of 25 years, this occurrence is a heinous breach of professonalism and tacit trust which is critical to an educational community. As others have stated here, a breach of conduct such as this is just not acceptable, even in 2006. Unfortunately, it has indeed been acceptable when the tables are turned--male teachers becoming sexually involved with female students. "Boys will be boys," "man, he's still got 'it,'" etc. I've known colleagues who had affairs and even married their students.
I'm fairly accepting of alot of things in this world, but to maintain a standard is important.
When approached by male students only 3-5 years my junior when I was a young assist. professor (@22-23), I continually turned them down, even when they came back AFTER the course ended, or they had graduated. Then, when I started teaching high school and still looked pretty darn good at 40, they hit on me--seriously. But my first thought, no matter how much I cared about my kids, was that they were "my children" too, and there was no interest or self-generated feelings of attraction--and I was always very clear about it. My brother's good looking and charming--would I have sex with him? Eeeuuuwwww."

Even when a colleague (lateral-entry teacher, 30 yo) was having sex with one of the top varsity basketbball players and got caught (but never outed in the press, as the principal paid someone off big time!!), all I could think was, "How could she betray the trust inherent in the position of an educator?" This is one of the primary problems, I believe, with having to hire lateral entry teachers in our teacher shortage (they have been in other fields, want to teach, so begin and take a few courses to become certified/licensed)--they haven't been through the multitude of courses and spent time immersed in the culture of education," so the transgression only seems like an "affair," rather than a moral breach. It's like putting a big ol' Oscar in a killie or guppy tank!!

Sorry for the soapbox, but sex aside, I think it is always inappropriate and morally bankrupt to become involved with one's students in such a manner. View them as your own kids, siblings, whatever, but not lovers. We have the capacity to control ourselves--just do it!!!
:shark:
 
Ms.Bubbles said:
Yes, but what of the situation now? The crime is in the past. That's primarily what the Dateline show was there to depict--the fact that they are still together, still "in love", that they even have children now, despite her being sent to jail. An extraordinary situation.
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IMO..the show was in bad taste. I think it did glorify the situation, and shouldn't have been done.
 
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