LA’S SCHOOLS-The young teacher, Gordon Sumner, did not last in teaching long. Fresh out of teacher’s college he taught for a couple of years at St. Paul's First School in Northumberland.
Young teachers and young girls need some careful watching, as he recounts in a song he wrote:
Young teacher the subject
Of school girl fantasy
She wants him so badly
Knows what she wants to be
Inside her there's longing
This girl's an open page
Book marking she's so close now
This girl is half his age
Don't stand, don't stand so
Don't stand so close to me
Don't stand, don't stand so
Don't stand so close to me
Her friends are so jealous
You know how bad girls get
Sometimes it's not so easy
To be the teacher's pet
Temptation, frustration
So bad it makes him cry
Wet bus stop, she's waiting
His car is warm and dry
Loose talk in the classroom
To hurt they try and try
Strong words in the staffroom
The accusations fly
It's no use he sees her
He starts to shake and cough
Just like the old man in
That book by Nabokov
In that same period, Sumner, a part time musician, wore a yellow and black striped sweater to a gig and was forever after Sting.
WEDNESDAY EVENING a small party of us first heard the story that broke Thursday morning - about the middle schooler and her affair with her teacher.
LA UNIFIED ARGUED MIDDLE SCHOOLER CAN CONSENT TO SEX WITH TEACHER (follows)
All seemingly old water long under the bridge. The teacher was caught in 2010 and convicted in 2011, the girl and/or her parents tried to sue LAUSD a year ago – but the court found the District had acted appropriately as soon as it suspected what going on.
Whistle blown. Teacher removed, Charges filed. Conviction obtained.
The District actually won a civil lawsuit in a child abuse case.
The couple had carefully hid the affair from everyone the District’s attorney argued. They had lied to the girl’s parents and deceived the school. The District successfully argued that it didn’t know the abuse was going on, and when it found out …
Loose talk in the classroom
To hurt they try and try
…one of the girl’s friends told a teacher, who dropped a dime …
The District acted immediately – a perfectly good and legitimate defense.
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Case closed; all by the book. Just like the mandatory Child Abuse Awareness Training says.
But the LAUSD attorney went on, bringing up the girl's past sexual history – and pretty much painted the fourteen year old (like in the song, twice the teacher’s age) not as the victim but as an offender.
She was, as the bad boys say: Asking for it.
The lawyer went as far to claim that under a couple of interpretations of California Law a 14-year-old middle school student was mature enough to consent to having sex with her 28-year-old teacher, and that she bore responsibility for what happened. .
It seems our attorney was mounting a two phase defense:
A.) The District wasn’t responsible because it was unaware and
B.) It was OK anyway, the girl was a tramp
(I remind you here that the teacher was already in prison for the offence.)
In a radio interview the LAUSD attorney went on to say: "Making a decision as to whether or not to cross the street when traffic is coming, that takes a level of maturity and that's a much more dangerous decision than to decide, 'Hey, I want to have sex with my teacher,'"
By the book. The one by Nabokov. Or maybe Kafka.
I’m sorry, gentle readers, I like that Police song. I love the book by Nabokov – it’s a passionate and almost libidinous love letter - not to little girls - but to-and-in the English language.
I confess that pubescent girls are attractive and can be seductive. But if you’re a teacher or a stepparent or a priest or an adult of any flavor - and a fourteen year old is asking for it - the answer is always “No!”
There is no moral or ethical or legal ambiguity.
And if there is ambiguity in California Law we need to change the law.
The story of course continues; they always do.
LA TIMES & LA OPINÓN ON LAUSD’s ‘BLAME THE VICTIM’ COURTROOM STRATEGY |
LA UNIFIED ATTORNEY APOLOGIZES FOR SAYING IT'S MORE DANGEROUS TO CROSS STREET THAN HAVE SEX WITH A TEACHER |
• The civil case is being appealed because the girl’s sexual history was inappropriately brought up in trial
• Other people are coming forward with other alleged instances of inappropriate and or questionable conduct by the teacher in question.
• The District initially stood behind, then criticized and finally fired the attorney (but not his law firm) – all within about 36 hours.
IN THE MIRAMONTE CASE the judge has ruled against the District’s motion for a gag order CITE
BOARDMEMBER RATLIFF, an attorney herself, has asked for an investigation going back five years on LAUSD’s action in civil cases. 2 Stories: RATLIFF ASKING FOR REVIEW OF LITIGATION COSTS OVER LAST 5 YEARS |
I SUPPOSE THIS CAN BE ASCRIBED TO SOME DEASIAN EXCESS, an abundance of urgency or Win-at-All-Costs zeal. It would probably be a mistake to paint the girl in Mary Janes, bobby socks and a gingham dress; this was nor Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm.
But please – these are children – and some of them like some of us make huge mistakes.
Somebody should be always looking out for the kids.
Somebody should always be looking out for young teachers, the subjects of schoolgirl fantasies.
Somebody should look out for outside counsel.
Nabokov said of Freud: “I don't want an elderly gentleman from Vienna with an umbrella inflicting his dreams upon me.”
Vladimir Nabokov, the novelist - like all novelists - created+populated a unique world. In his, one John Ray, Jr, Ph.D., a prominent psychiatrist from Widworth, Massachusetts with a penchant for platitude and a taste for semicolons is asked to edit the first person testament of Humbert H. Humbert (not his real name Ray assures us) who has died in judicial custody, awaiting trial. After a page or two of New English moralizing Ray introduces us to the novel Lolita thus:
“As a case history, Lolita will become, no doubt, a classic in psychiatric circles. As a work of art, it transcends its expiatory aspects; and still more important to us than scientific significance and literary worth, is the ethical impact the book should have on the serious reader; for in this poignant personal study there lurks a general lesson; the wayward child, the egotistic mother, the panting maniac — these are not only vivid characters in a unique story: they warn us of dangerous trends; they point out potent evils. Lolita should make all of us — parents, social workers, educators — apply ourselves with still greater vigilance and vision to the task of bringing up a better generation in a safer world.”
(Scott Folsom is a parent and parent leader in LAUSD. He is the former President of Los Angeles 10th District PTSA and represents PTA as Vice-chair the LAUSD Construction Bond Citizen's Oversight Committee. Scott is a member of the California State PTA Board on Managers. He blogs at the excellent 4 LA Kids … where this perspective was originally posted.)
-cw
CityWatch
Vol 12 Issue 93
Pub: Nov 18, 2014
