They Make It Far Too Easy

Some days I read the news and think, “They just make it far too easy.” Take the case of the first grade teacher in Lexington County School District Three in Lexington, South Carolina, who was accused of making her students rub her bare feet in class. The school district claims they took appropriate action when they disciplined the teacher, but the parents are furious that the teacher hasn’t been fired. I’m curious about how bad her corns were.  The answer to that question might be the difference between poor judgment on her part or cruel and unusual punishment.
 
Then I discovered that a teacher in a suburban Chicago Christian school has been charged with masturbating behind a podium while teaching his math class. I tried to write a couple of math jokes about poles for this story but the obscenity is simply too great for humor. Police believe that he may have been doing this on and off for the past ten years. Ten years!

While I was reading through these stories I discovered a story about a teacher who was arrested for having sex with one her 14 year old students. I lost the link when I went shut down the computer to make dinner. Later, when I searched for the story, I typed the words “teacher” and “sex” and “14-year-old” into a Google search engine. I received 32,800,000 results in 0.24 seconds. I decided at that point that I didn’t want to read anymore. 32,800,000 hits about teachers having sex with 14-year-olds is 32,800,000 hits too many.
 
Homeschooling critics may believe that we are harming our children by keeping them out of the halls of public academia, but I am 100% certain that as long as my children are homeschooled their teacher will never ask them to rub his feet. He will never practice self-gratification during math class, or conduct himself in a manner that will garner 32.8 million hits on Google. While I still believe that the perpetrators of these incidents are in the vast minority of professional teachers, that’s little consolation for the students involved. Quite frankly, I’m not willing to gamble my children’s health and safety on the hope that their public or private school teacher is one of the good ones. They are far too valuable to me.

Even When Licensed and Certified, a Cougar is Still a Cougar

The Drudge Report, The Spartanburg Herald-Times online edition GoUpstate.com, and WYFF4.com are all reporting that two South Carolina teachers have been arrested on suspicion of hosting parties last summer where they provided sex, drugs, and alcohol to students aged 11 and up.   Forty-two year old Sarah Jane Lindsay was a 4K teacher at Boiling Springs Elementary School in Boiling Springs, South Carolina, while 44-year-old party co-host Audrey Beidleman Grabarkiewicz taught preschool at Lake Bowen Baptist Church in Inman, South Carolina.  Both women have been arrested after a lengthy investigation conducted by Spartanburg County Sherriff’s Deputies.   Neither woman is currently employed.  The Lake Bowen Baptist Church fired Audrey Grabarkiewicz and Sarah Jane resigned from Boiling Springs Elementary school.  The church’s website has no mention of their recently fired teacher.  Boiling Springs Elementary’s website has been scrubbed of any mention of their former teacher, but retains its banner proclaiming "Discover Your Treasure...Learning is an adventure at BSES.” I bet it’s an adventure.  I hear their summer school program is a hoot, too.  There is no mention of the allegations on either website, but why should there be?  

This is much ado about nothing.

I might understand the national coverage of this local community problem if these women provided sex, drugs, and alcohol to all of the children in their school, or in their respective classes, but the truth is they did not.  They provided sex, drugs, and alcohol to some students.  A select few.  And since none of the students were from either of these teacher's classrooms, what’s the big deal?  Audrey Beidleman Grabarkiewicz was only charged with 10 counts of contributing to the delinquency of a minor.  She had sex with teenagers who were over the age of 16.  In South Carolina, 16 is the age of consent.   What's wrong with a little cougar action?  No problems there.   Sarah Jane Lindsay has a slightly bigger legal problem, which explains why her $50,000 bond was twice the amount levied on Ms. Grabarkiewicz.  Sarah was charged with nine counts of contributing to the delinquency of a minor as well as criminal sexual conduct with a minor between the ages of 11 and 14 years of age.  

Ouch.

Now, no one should overreact to the alleged activities.  We must remember some salient facts.  Neither woman engaged in these activities with their students.  The incidents did not take place on either school or church property.  Their own teenaged children were not involved.  They allegedly provided sex, drugs, and alcohol to some students aged 11 years old and older.  We cannot forget that both of these women are innocent of committing the charges brought against them until they are proven guilty by the state of South Carolina.  I’m not even certain why Ms. Lindsay resigned from her position.  Her 4k students were safe under her care.

Under no circumstances can we allow ourselves to believe that this incident reflects poorly on Boiling Springs public schools or the teachers and staff that work there.  This is an isolated incident that took place off of school grounds by a now former teacher in the privacy of her home.    This really should be a private matter between these women and their husbands.  If a house of worship can experience an incident such as the one that allegedly took place, it can happen anywhere.  In no way does this reflect poorly on public schooling.

Right?