Teacher/Student Boundaries
What is up with people pushing the teacher/student boundaries? I guess I understand why and how it can happen...it just seems like it happens more often that I thought. I've had suspicions about past teachers, I've heard rumors, I've heard confirmations to some of those rumors, I've heard stories from other schools, I've seen it on the news, I've seen it in TV shows... It's a problem.
My high school band director was at my school for 3 years. At first, I really liked him as a teacher and we were pretty close, but by the end of his time at my school, I couldn't stand him. I'd heard rumors of him and a student pushing boundaries, but never had those rumors confirmed. He left our school and started teaching at a neighboring district. He was there a year and a half before resigning and having his teaching certificate taken away on grounds of sexual misconduct in a previous teaching post with a student at that previous post.
It doesn't mean it was my school - he HAD taught at other districts before mine - but it's possible, and it's also possible there was more than one case of it.
I know that teachers and students can get pretty close, especially in something that meets so frequently and under extracurricular circumstances such as in a band program. Marching band, you see each other in various states of dress, emotion, physicality, etc. It's more intimate than your standard math or history class. It's also a relationship that generally lasts more than one school year - band is usually a multiple year involvement. Friendships can grow, emotions can get carried away... but why would you let it go further? It compromises the teacher's employment, it can result in legal measures being taken, it damages both parties involved, it damages the families and friends of both parties, and I really don't know too many people who condone that kind of behavior. It makes me want to homeschool my kids if I ever have any. I don't want some pervert violating my offspring.
I also realize that it's not always the teacher initiating the misconduct. The student just as easily be the one pursing something more.
Either way, it's immoral. If a teacher and student bond, it's great that the student can have an older mentor figure, but that has to be the extent of it. As long as the student is a student, that relationship should not become anything more, particularly not a relationship with a sexual nature.
My high school band director was at my school for 3 years. At first, I really liked him as a teacher and we were pretty close, but by the end of his time at my school, I couldn't stand him. I'd heard rumors of him and a student pushing boundaries, but never had those rumors confirmed. He left our school and started teaching at a neighboring district. He was there a year and a half before resigning and having his teaching certificate taken away on grounds of sexual misconduct in a previous teaching post with a student at that previous post.
It doesn't mean it was my school - he HAD taught at other districts before mine - but it's possible, and it's also possible there was more than one case of it.
I know that teachers and students can get pretty close, especially in something that meets so frequently and under extracurricular circumstances such as in a band program. Marching band, you see each other in various states of dress, emotion, physicality, etc. It's more intimate than your standard math or history class. It's also a relationship that generally lasts more than one school year - band is usually a multiple year involvement. Friendships can grow, emotions can get carried away... but why would you let it go further? It compromises the teacher's employment, it can result in legal measures being taken, it damages both parties involved, it damages the families and friends of both parties, and I really don't know too many people who condone that kind of behavior. It makes me want to homeschool my kids if I ever have any. I don't want some pervert violating my offspring.
I also realize that it's not always the teacher initiating the misconduct. The student just as easily be the one pursing something more.
Either way, it's immoral. If a teacher and student bond, it's great that the student can have an older mentor figure, but that has to be the extent of it. As long as the student is a student, that relationship should not become anything more, particularly not a relationship with a sexual nature.