Abusing His Students
Professional Misconduct of a Teacher
1992
When I became an assistant principal of a high school in
1988, I was the first and only female to hold this position in my county. There weren’t many female administrators at
the high school level, around the country, at this point in time. Women weren’t hired because there was a general belief that
women couldn’t handle the boys and their language and antics. I didn’t find
this to be a challenge.
But my new, mere presence had a dramatic change in behavior
of some of the male faculty. As male and female faculty alike reported to me,
the number of rumors and complaints about inappropriate male teacher behavior
towards female students decreased dramatically after I arrived. It was as if these few men realized they now
might be held accountable for these unprofessional behaviors. The male dominated
regime was now over.
Former students who were now my age told me story after
story of male teachers who touched them, made sexual advances towards and
threatened grade reductions if these female students did not comply. There were even allegations of students
becoming pregnant and having abortions to protect some male teachers.
While people marveled at how quickly some teachers got their
act together and put these behaviors behind them, not all of these few teachers
stopped.
A girl came into my office shaken and asked if she could
close the door. She was usually
outspoken when she met with me. But
today, she was frightened, spooked and she needed my help. She told me she was working with a
teacher. They were alone in a quiet
section of the building. The teacher
leaned over to her and tweeted one of her nipples. She was stunned. The teacher laughed and asked, “Did you like
that?” She replied. “No.” He tweeted the
other nipple, “Well what about this time?’
She jumped up and ran out of the room and came right to me.
I reported this situation immediately to the
principal. He asked me to remain objective,
as this behavior was out of character for this teacher who had 35 years of
teaching and wouldn’t possible risk so much for so little.
I sent the girl home for the day and then interviewed the
teacher. By the time I got to him, he
was a mess. “Yes, I did that. I don’t know what came over me,” he cried.
That was his last day with us. He
resigned immediately and the girl and her parents said they didn’t want to
pursue the matter any further.
Six months later, a mother storms in to my office after
school. She is livid, belligerent and
full of fire. Anger is oozing out of
every pore in her body.
“What the fuck is wrong with your fucking teachers? Are they all perverts? Do you harbor perverts around here. Everyone knows who they are and you’re doing
nothing about it.”
I ask her to have a seat and ask if she can tell me her
name.
“I’ll tell you who I am.
I am the aunt to the girl who got her tits groped by that old pervert
teacher who isn’t here anymore and now my daughter comes home to tell me that
another one of your perverts grinded her ass right in front of other students.”
It’s pretty hard to follow up with any comment at this
point. I am speechless. With that, her
daughter comes in and sits down.
“Tell me what happened”.
“I was at my locker, right outside Mr. Boyd’s class. He sees me and winks at me. I ignored him. He’s so gross. But then I’m bending over to
get a book at the bottom of my locker and he is all the sudden, right behind
me. He put his hands on my hips and he
grinds his dick on my ass and whispers, ‘I get so hard when I see you in that
tight skirt’. So I pulled away from him
and told him to get off me.”
“Then what happened?” I asked as I took notes.
“He just laughed and made some stupid joke with the guys and
went back to his desk. He’s a disgusting pig,” she tells me with so much anger
that I just want to go find him and punch him myself.
“What’s wrong with your fucking teachers? Who do they think they are that they can get
away with this behavior? Why hasn’t that
guy been fired years ago? Everyone knows
about him. Why do you let him around girls?
Admit it, you know he sleeps with your students”. This mother is so angry;
she stares at me with a glare that is a bit frightening.
I can’t lie. I tell her that I have heard allegations but
that I cannot take any disciplinary action without due process. He is entitled to a hearing by law. But to date, no one will stand up to him.
“Well, this mother will”, she says, pointing to her chest. “I will take that son of a bitch to court if
I have to. No one is doing this to my
daughter or my niece again or any other girl for that matter. I want a hearing. He is not getting away with
it this time. Fuck him.”
I make arrangements for the preliminary hearing the next
day. It is Friday afternoon. Everyone has left the building for the
weekend. The principal is conducting the
hearing. The girl and her mother show up
and sit on the left side of me. The
teacher arrives, alone, without union representation, and takes a seat to my
right.
I lay out the gist of our conversation yesterday. I ask the mother to confirm my comments and
she does. The student also confirms my
comments. The principal asks the teacher
if he would like to make any comments. This
man looks broken and he asks the principal and the mother if he could speak
privately with the mother and student, “for just a few moments”. Both parties agree. So the principal and I step out of the room.
We wait and wait and wait.
Almost an hour passes and then the door opens up. The teacher leaves the room. It is obvious that he had been crying. He
quickly walks away from us. I look to
the mother. She looks away from me.
“What happened?”, I ask.
“It’s over”, she says shamefully.
“What do you mean it s over?” I can’t believe what I am
hearing. I am so disappointed in this
woman and she can sense it.
“We’re finished. We
aren’t pursuing this anymore. We’re done”.
Her tone is worn out and tired.
“Why, what?”
“He isn’t going to bother her ever again. That’s all I want”,
she tells me.
“But what about yesterday, you said you would stand up to
him. You wanted to make sure he didn’t do this to one more girl.” Now, I’m mad.
“I’m not dragging my daughter through this if I don’t have
to. We got his attention.
We’re done. The other
girls aren’t my problem. That’s your
problem”. And then the two of them left.
“Well, that was a close one”, my principal blurts out. “He really dodged that bullet. I hope that
guy finally learned a lesson’.
“That’s it. He’s off
the hook’ I ask. I am incredulous.
“Yea, she isn’t going to testify against him. There isn’t much we can do”.
“But you know he did it.
They know he did it and he knows we know he did it. The next time he does it again, some parent
could now sue us now for negligence if we don’t do something. Are you willing to risk your job on this jerk
who abuses our kids?”
That got his attention so I followed up with a recent court
case where the judge found the principal guilty of negligence for not
disciplining a teacher.
“This could be us. We
know he did it and we can’t pretend it didn’t happen. It did”.
“What do you think we should do?” Now David is worried.
“Suspend him for five days.
Call his bluff. Let him challenge
us. Then we can subpoena the mother and
the girl to testify if necessary. But he
isn’t going to appeal the suspension. He
has too much to lose. That way, we took
action and held him accountable.”
The principal liked the idea.
He seemed a bit relieved but a bit nervous at the same time. He called to the teacher’s classroom and
asked him to return to the office. The
news was delivered that Mr. Boyd would be suspended without pay for five days
for sexual misconduct. He was informed
that he had a right to appeal if he wanted. He was asked if he wanted to make
any comments.
“No”, he responded with a resignation of defeat. A deep sadness permeated the room.
He left immediately and took the suspension without protest.
We documented the suspension for any further allegations. But there were never any more
allegations. I do not serious believe
that his behavior stopped. I think he
just became slicker and more discrete in his despicable approach to young
girls.
