Is Johnny sleeping with his teacher?

Edmonton Sun, By MINDELLE JACOBS, February 2, 2006

Once upon a time, if parents found out their teenage sons were having sex, the most they had to worry about was if the kids were using birth control.

These days, there's another worry: Is little Johnny sleeping with his teacher?

When I was in high school three decades ago, I don't recall reading about a single instance anywhere of a female teacher becoming sexually involved with a male student.

In the past few years, however, the reported incidence of female educators engaging in sexual hijinks with male students has been, if not routine, certainly far from a rarity.

The latest case to hit the press is that of a 40-year-old Ontario teacher charged last week with sexually assaulting a 13-year-old male student.

Also last week, a 28-year-old New Brunswick teacher, Rene Gaudet, admitted to having sex with a 13-year-old boy, also a student. She was fired and got two years of house arrest.

Aside from the obvious criminality and shocking breach of professional conduct in cases like these, what does a grown woman see in a 13-year-old?

It's mind-boggling.

Men have traditionally been the sexual predators, taking advantage of the power imbalance to victimize younger and more vulnerable women.

Now women are apparently becoming the manipulators, grooming their young male targets and then moving in for a little hanky-panky.

What the heck's going on?

A U.S. sociologist suspects a number of factors are at play, including delayed marriage and the overall emphasis on sex in our society.

"With increasing egalitarian gender roles, women might feel more empowered to do what men have been doing for decades, which is basically dating people who are quite a bit younger than they are," says Pam Smock, an associate professor at the University of Michigan's Institute for Social Research.

"There's a huge power asymmetry between these women teachers and these young boys and I think it's morally wrong," she says.

At the same time, young teen boys are more opposed to pornography than they used to be and may be more motivated to have sex at an earlier age than their predecessors, she says.

Society's obsession with sex may make boys feel it's OK to sleep with their teachers and they have more freedom than was the case several decades ago because there are so many dual-income families, she adds.

"There's more opportunity when there's less supervision," says Smock.

There have been numerous cases in recent years in the U.S. of female teachers taking sexual advantage of male students.

Two months ago, for instance, a 25-year-old Florida teacher, Debra Lafave, pleaded guilty to having sex with a 14-year-old male student.

The boy testified that she was aroused by the fact that having sex with a student was prohibited.

The big mystery is whether a lot more female teachers are having trysts with students or whether it's always happened and no one reported it before.

Berna Skrypnek, an associate professor in the human ecology department at the University of Alberta, thinks the more likely scenario is that victims are more willing to come forward today.

But who knows how prevalent it is?

According to one U.S. survey of students, 57% of teachers who had engaged in sexual misconduct with pupils were male and 42% were female.

Abuse by female teachers may, in fact, be underreported because boys have been socialized to believe they should be flattered by the sexual interest of a woman, says a 2004 report on educator sexual misconduct done for the U.S. Department of Education.

One thing is clear. Mrs. Robinson has a decidedly different look today.

The Canadian children's rights Council's same story with the genders reversed Try replacing the yellow areas with "sexual assault" or something similar

Is Jilly sleeping with her teacher?

Edmonton Sun, By MIKE JACOBS, February 2, 2006

Once upon a time, if parents found out their teenage daughters were having sex, the most they had to worry about was if the kids were using birth control.

These days, there's another worry: Is little Jilly sleeping with her teacher?

When I was in high school three decades ago, I don't recall reading about a single instance anywhere of a male teacher becoming sexually involved with a female student.

In the past few years, however, the reported incidence of male educators engaging in sexual hijinks with female students has been, if not routine, certainly far from a rarity.

The latest case to hit the press is that of a 40-year-old Ontario teacher charged last week with sexually assaulting a 13-year-old female student.

Also last week, a 28-year-old New Brunswick teacher, Rock Gaudet, admitted to having sex with a 13-year-old girl, also a student. He was fired and got two years of house arrest.

Aside from the obvious criminality and shocking breach of professional conduct in cases like these, what does a grown man see in a 13-year-old?

It's mind-boggling.

Women have traditionally been the sexual predators, taking advantage of the power imbalance to victimize younger and more vulnerable men.

Now men are apparently becoming the manipulators, grooming their young female targets and then moving in for a little hanky-panky.

What the heck's going on?

A U.S. sociologist suspects a number of factors are at play, including delayed marriage and the overall emphasis on sex in our society.

"With increasing egalitarian gender roles, men might feel more empowered to do what women have been doing for decades, which is basically dating people who are quite a bit younger than they are," says Bob Smock, an associate professor at the University of Michigan's Institute for Social Research.

"There's a huge power asymmetry between these men teachers and these young girls and I think it's morally wrong," he says.

At the same time, young teen girls are more opposed to pornography than they used to be and may be more motivated to have sex at an earlier age than their predecessors, he says.

Society's obsession with sex may make girls feel it's OK to sleep with their teachers and they have more freedom than was the case several decades ago because there are so many dual-income families, he adds.

"There's more opportunity when there's less supervision," says Smock.

There have been numerous cases in recent years in the U.S. of male teachers taking sexual advantage of female students.

Two months ago, for instance, a 25-year-old Florida teacher, Desmond Lafave, pleaded guilty to having sex with a 14-year-old female student.

The girl testified that he was aroused by the fact that having sex with a student was prohibited.

The big mystery is whether a lot more male teachers are having trysts with students or whether it's always happened and no one reported it before.

Bernard Skrypnek, an associate professor in the human ecology department at the University of Alberta, thinks the more likely scenario is that victims are more willing to come forward today.

But who knows how prevalent it is?

According to one U.S. survey of students, 57% of teachers who had engaged in sexual misconduct with pupils were female and 42% were male.

Abuse by male teachers may, in fact, be underreported because girls have been socialized to believe they should be flattered by the sexual interest of a man, says a 2004 report on educator sexual misconduct done for the U.S. Department of Education.

One thing is clear. Mr. Robinson has a decidedly different look today.

Canadian Children's Rights Council
Commentary:

Gender Bias in the media reporting of the sexual assault of male children and youths

Many articles that have come out over the last year or two have increased awareness of female sexual predators who prey on males.

One sub-group of female sexual predators are female teachers who commit sexual assaults on their male students (and sometimes female students).

We have seen a disturbing double standard in the media reporting of such acts.

Such words as "affair", "relationship", sexual relationship", "sleeping with" and others are used to describe sexual assault if the victim is male and the predator is female.

In some cases, the adult female predators claim they have been victimized.

We have articles on this website which contain such "justifications" on the basis that the predator wasn't having a happy relationship with her husband. One case involves a woman over 40 year who stated that a 7 year old boy, a friend of her daughters, "was coming on to her.."

One of the standard tests for gender bias taught by women's studies courses is to change  the gender in a sentence and try it on for size...so to speak.

The Edmonton Sun story on the left side of this page titled Is Johnny sleeping with his teacher? is followed by our conversion of the genders in the story.

You be the judge.