double standard...what do you think?

Question

Just finished watching Oprah. It was about female teachers sleeping with their students. What do you think? Should women have lighter punishments? What is your opinion about the issue, in general?

My sister had the show on, I didn't put it on myself.

Just to clarify I believe it should be equal punishment for men and women, but that doesn't seem to be the case. It seems women are getting lighter punishments just because they are women.

Answer 1

They should all lose their jobs and never be allowed to teach again if the allegations are proven. They should also be barred from other state licensed jobs such as social worker, nurse, any of the helping professions. They have abused their trust.

Somehow I think it's a lesser crime, but it's still corrupting a minor. The psychological effect on the boy is not as great, they don't feel as victimized, cannot get pregnant. A crime, but a lesser degree of sexual assault or whatever that state statute calls it.

What is this -- a trend or what? The first one most people heard about was Mary Jo somebody? I don't remember her name, but she had an affair and 2 kids by a 13 year old student of Samoan origin. Did this start a trend. Can you supplement your question, I didn't get to see Oprah.

Answer 2

One of the most absud things I've ever heard on this subject was the defense that the person was a good teacher.

Talk Show Host Stan Solomon summed it up quite nicely...

"A pedophile is NOT a good teacher."

The punishment should be the same. There's nothing different when one exploits the responsibility that they have over influential minds. The minds are the responsiblity of the teachers, not the bodies or the sexual development.

Answer 3

No women should not have lighter punishments. Whether male or female the teacher broke the trust of the parents. Parents send their children to school without meeting the teachers with the feeling that their children are safe from harm. Teachers should not sleep with their students it is a whole huge trust issue. Not to mention that it is called statutory rape and it is against the law. Many people say that since it was a female teacher that it had to be willing but honestly a man can get physically excited without actually wanting to do. But honestly that is beside the point. A student that age does not know any better. They get an attraction to their teacher and they do what they do because they don't know better. That adult teacher knows better and knows it is against the law. I hate the attitude from fathers saying way to go because they had sex with their female teacher but these same people will have a cow if a male teacher would have had sex with their daughter. I read an article where female teachers who had had sex with their underage male student got pregnant by that student. They sued for child support in won! In my opinion that woman commited a crime and does not deserve child support.

I am a teacher. I find it disgusting, misuse of power, and huge breach in trust to sleep with your student. There are plenty of fishies in the sea to have sex with you don't need to have sex with an underage student. It disgusts me. Schools should be a safe haven not a place where students are going to be sexually assulted by their sick in the head teachers.

Answer 4

No, women shouldnt have lighter punishments. If its illegal to sleep with a 16 year old, its illegal to sleep with them. Period. We dont change the rules by the sex of the offender here in the US, and that is the way it should be. Maybe we should lower the penalties for Assult for men, since they have higher levels of testosterone, which makes them mroe prone to get into a fight? Dont like that one? Yeah, doesnt make much sense, does it?

Answer 5

I think that they should be punished the same regardless of gender!

Why should a woman have a lighter punishment? she abused her authority in the worst possible way and therefore deserves an extremely harsh punishment.

Women today want equality......... so lets give it to them and treat them the same as we would treat a man in the same circumstance!

Answer 6

Children are the most defenseless, impressionable and vulnerable members of any society. To continue to allow people in positions of trust and influence to exploit their relationship with students for personal satisfaction is abhorrent and detrimental to the social fabric.

Regardless of gender, instructors who break away from their moral responsibility to educate and protect children while they are out of the home, and supercede their job responsibilities with actions that satisfy their own personal needs or illnesses should be prosecuted to the full extent of the law. Too often we go easy on the perpetrators of these crimes, with all hope and effort exerted to rehabilitate, with no concern or care given to the victims of these crimes. If strong enforcement of current laws and clear, proportionate punishment for the guilty is the norm, perhaps future predators would think twice before engaging in such morally debilitating behavior.

Much responsibility and blame resides with educational administrators, whose criteria for hiring teachers and substitutes is at an all time low. Rather than worrying about student/teacher ratios (not even close to a big issue in college settings), administrators should worry about moral and ethical standing of teachers in society, and their ability to educate children appropriate to society's demands of those children as they turn into adults. Instead, some of these teachers adopt the adolescent carelessness of those in their charge, and are given multiple opportunities to remediate themselves, but often continue to perpetrate their selfish, divisive delinquency with no thought as to how the student and everyone else will be affected by their behavior.

Oprah would do well to categorically reprimand these teachers (rather than paint them as normal people with problems), and seek to focus on their victims and victims' families, where the true effects of the crime are most evident. Children should also be instructed by their parents, counselors and principals to report any untoward behavior by teachers, and schools and district officials should perform thorough and periodical background checks and investigations on any and all teachers that enter the school system.

People do not bust their butts paying heavy taxes to fund schools where teachers are there to date/sleep with their students. That is not an educational environment nor a healthy one for children to be in, and perhaps it would take a massive class action lawsuit against a school district that drives them into bankruptcy to make the point. This may have a severe short term impact on specific school districts and student populations, but would serve the purpose of ensuring that schools are the safest and healthiest places for children to be in outside the home. That should be the goal of anyone investigating this phenomenon, and should be Oprah's focus anytime she decides to highlight the issue for personal profit.

Answer 7

I think in the past we have quite silently understood that men often learn about sex from an older women in their life. It's been going on for sooo long. We just never discussed it before.

Answer 8

The law systems is symbolised by the blind lady holding the scales. Justice is suppose to be blind. So Sex, race so on and so forth SHOULD be treated equally in the eyes of the law. Unfortunately. Most judges aren't blind.

Answer 9

i just watched that too. the only reason they are not in jail is becaus ethey are women. if it was a man slepping with underaged boys or girl we would want them to be in jail for life without the possibility of getting out and all that kind of stuff, i think that if it goes for one set of people then it should go for everybody just because you r a women does not make wat you did any less wrong.

Answer 10

Equal punishment for equal offenses.