Female Teachers as Sexual Predators: A Very Real Danger

We trust them, the teachers who teach our children in school. But what we don't know or don't want to recognize is the growing problem of women sexual predators in our school systems. In fact, despite the media hype about priests, sexual predators, who cross that line and abuse boys, our children are in far more danger from sexual predators in public school than in church. In fact, According to a major 2004 study commissioned by the U.S. Department of Education - the most in-depth investigation to date - nearly 10 percent of U.S. public school students have been targeted with unwanted sexual attention by school employees. --Worldnetdaily.com

In Nebraska we were shocked when a teacher in a small town seduced one of her sixth grade students, that's right, sixth grade, and ran away with him to Mexico. Her family and her lawyer are busy trying to excuse her behavior. The courts will soon decide her fate. --Plains Feeder.

The trouble with the growing problem of women teachers who've become sexual predators, is the difference in the way courts treat cases of men vs women teacher sexual predators. Both are in positions of authority, but women are nurturers and, if anything, have an edge in seduction. Attention becomes caring and caring becomes not nurturing but exploitation, changing forever the male child's perception of women as mothers and nurturers.

"It's a violation of a dual role that the teachers put the student into - the teacher-student role and the sexual partner role," Riccardo Rivas, a psychologist, said. Rivas added that even though a teen-ager may view having sex with an older woman as harmless, or even desirous, such a relationship is not healthy and can manifest itself later in symptoms such as low self-esteem and depression. --MenStuff:Teacher's Pet

Had Peterson been a male teacher, he would have, most likely, been pilloried in the press that would have declared him a dangerous, criminal sexual predator with the prosecutors doing everything possible to get a conviction that would put him in prison for a very long time. What the outcome of Peterson's case is yet to be decided, but I don't see the same drive to convict.

The crime is just a heinous, if not more so. A female sexual predator who seduces a child damages in ways that are incalculable. Yet, the courts too often wink at these women sexual predators, many of whom claim to "love" their victims. Too often, the media compounds the problem of female sexual predators with soft-ball, empathetic coverage. Elayne Savage, a California-based psychotherapist who lectures and holds seminars throughout the country on the effects of abuse, said such relationships are a form of sexual abuse. ----MenStuff:Teacher's Pet

In June 2002, The Associated Press reported, "Some experts point to what they see as a permissive attitude toward such relationships (teacher-student sex) and a double standard because cases involving female teachers and male students are treated less severely."

Some of these female sexual predators given a slap on the wrist gain employment in another school district and began stalking children all over again. Some school districts who catch these sexual predators sometimes try to quietly fire them without specifying the problem, further perpetuating the problem.

Our children are at risk from sexual predators in the setting in which they should be the most safe outside of their own homes-the public schools. However, this is not the case. Our children are at risk and parents, schools and the courts need to work together to put not only stop male sexual predators, but the very real danger from the growing number of female sexual predators. Are your children safe?

Steps to take:

Know your children's teachers.
Don't assume teachers won't harm your child.
Don't allow your child a lot of alone time with a teacher, for sure, not in a setting outside of school.
If your child's behavior changes with regard to habits, school, or teachers, discover why.
Most of all, keep the lines of communication open with your child and listen.

We teach our children to listen and obey authority figures such as teachers. Go one step further, teach your children discernment and right and wrong behavior. Give them permission to say "no" and leave when anyone in authority crosses sexual or other abusive boundaries. Check out the facts and back up your child, if he/she is telling the truth about the situation.

Insist schools and courts move to protect your child and other children from sexual predators by releasing teachers who abuse and bring criminal charges. The time to stop this plague on our children is now.