Beth Ann Chester: Dangerous Sensibilities

It's happened yet again. Another teacher is being accused of sending/viewing/introducing students to pornographic pictures of herself. Is anyone else getting tired of these articles? I know I am. But, facts are facts and sensationalism is the verb of this day and age. If you're like me, you probably have stopped caring about most of these incidents and just shake your head at the headlines. This headline, however, actually caught my attention: Teacher Beth Ann Chester Accused of Sending Nude Photos. Having been a teacher myself (for one year, and one year only), I decided to do a little research into this article.

According to the story on the International Herald Tribune, Beth Ann Chester exchanged sexually-oriented text messages with a 14 year old student during the time of October 2007-December 2007. The boy's parents found the messages and pictures on December 26. Merry Christmas to all. Chester then tendered her resignation the next day and was arrested and taken into custody on January 4. Happy New Year. As this blogspot writer put it, "Beth Ann Chester is a HOT Teacher."

Having taught middle school, I have to wonder why on earth any teacher would take interest in a 14 year old. I've seen how they dress and act. I even had a 14 year old who had a crush on me. That was a bit... unnerving. Never once did I even entertain the idea of trying to seduce him. To me, that's a bit icky (yes, icky is a technical term). But, allegedly, Ms. Chester seduced the boy and they texted back and forth and eventually sent pictures to each other. This sends up red flags in my head and raises a few questions.

1. Why, oh, why does a student have your cell phone number in the first place?

2. You had nine charges brought against you. Was it really worth it?

The second question may seem to be rather accusatory, but I offer to you this path of logic: If she is found not guilty, will you, reader, hold her blameless? OJ Simpson was found not guilty of murder. I rest my case. In a world that thrives on "preserving the psyche of the child" and other pseudo-psychological fluffiness, teachers find themselves in a position of being even more scrutinized. Times have drastically changed. In the 1800's, it was common place for teacher-student relationships.

In the movie An American Haunting, James D'Arcy's character finds himself in love with his student played by Rachel Hurd-Wood. In today's society, he would have been arrested, charged, and sentenced to jail time for inappropriate conduct with a minor (even though the girl's parents approved). Does this make the alleged crimes right? Of course not. I offer to you the idea, however, that in our current trend of "stronger, better, faster, smarter," we're actually creating children who are "weaker, lesser, slower, dumber."

In a random blip of an article from Topix, a similar situation spawned massive discussion. A teacher's cell phone containing allegedly pornographic pictures of her fell into a student's hands the pictures sent out to other students. You can read the full article here. What seems to be up for debate is how the phone fell into the possession of the student in the first place. The full article released by the press states that the female teacher loaned her phone to a student. The debate on Topix.com states that it was stolen from her. Either way, who is to blame? The teacher had photos on her phone that were allegedly pornographic in nature. Does this mean she was bringing pornography to school? If a male teacher has a condom in his wallet and it falls out and a female student sees it and picks it up, should he be suspended for "inappropriate contact with a minor"? I should hope not.

I had my purse stolen from my desk--yes, my desk--while I was teaching. It had my keys, my phone, and a lot of other personal items within it. If I had, say, a pocket knife among the contents, would I be held responsible for "contributing to the delinquency of a minor"? If I had, say, a vibrator in there (for whatever reason--call it a BDSM relationship with my husband), would I be charged with sexual misconduct? It is my personal property that I bring to school because there are things in it I need (like my keys, make up, hand sanitizer, credit and debit cards, etc). To have it stolen from my desk is a violation of an expected trust and respect. I don't recall what pictures I had on my cell phone. I never really thought about it. It is a camera phone and I use it when my digital camera is otherwise unavailable. Why the pictures were on her phone is no one's business. THAT the pictures were on her phone is also no one's business. If she did, in fact, lend her phone to a student to make a phone call, the student did not have permission to browse through the phone. I am certain sending text and picture messages were also in violation of what the teacher had permissioned.

In all reality, being a teacher is a thankless job and one that requires more thought and extrapolation than what is compensated. On a daily basis, a teacher must act with thought of consequences. If a teacher yells at a student, will there be a conference called by the parents? If a teacher gives the student a D on a paper because that is what the student earned, what type of backlash will there be? If a teacher grabs a child's arm and pulls him back from a burning building, will there be a law suit because of the physical contact?

Our society has gone downhill, frankly. Every action can and will be misinterpreted by someone. Random acts of kindness no longer happen without threat of lawsuit or jail time. We grant people the option of "getting rich quickly" by allowing lawsuits over fast food restaurants making people fat rather than teaching them that there are consequences for their actions and taking responsibility.

A personal friend, who shall remain nameless, was substitute teaching. A student came to the desk with a question and saw that he was looking at porn on the internet. Yes. He was punished. No, I don't think a lot of the nasty things that were said about him were necessary. He made a mistake. Just like Beth Ann Chester. Just like the nameless teacher in Lyndonville. Just like you. Just like me. "...He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone..." (John 8:7). We need to take a step back and really look at what we're teaching our children. We give them a lot of power and render ourselves powerless. A child can throw a tantrum in the mall, in public, and the parent can do nothing because if she spanks her child, the child will be taken away from her because someone somewhere will be offended by the application of corporal punishment. If you go back far enough in our society and find where we stopped paddling kids for misconduct, I can almost guarantee you'd find a direct correlation with the increase in crime.

So, Beth Ann Chester now sits in an Allegheny County Jail at the age of 26. She has tendered her resignation but remains on the payroll because the School Board is trying to decide if they should accept her resignation. My opinion? Accept it. Get her off the payroll. If she's found not guilty, she still will have trouble getting a job teaching, unless she moves to, maybe Oslow, Norway or some other country that hasn't heard about this case. There may be a school in America that will hire her, but I highly doubt it. It's awful that this situation occurred. It's awful that it even allegedly occurred. Her reputation will forever be tarnished. Her credibility is shot and will take a lot of work to build it back up. Guilty or not guilty, Ms. Chester has a very long road ahead of her.