This past week an incident in my hometown occurred that brought me to the realization of how prevalent systemic injustices are even in small town America. Three teachers were put on administrative leave, one of the teachers was supposedly fired for allegedly having incriminating photos of underage girls, specifically, one of his students. The other two teachers were found talking about the situation and what to do about it, this is what plagued my mind, how could two adults know this information about another person and not do something to protect the student? We are meant to go to school to learn and better ourselves but instead even at school, a place that is supposed to be safe, does not let women escape from the everyday cruelty. This situation seems to happen over and over again, a man takes advantage of a young impressionable girl and bystanders, even the administration does nothing to stop it. Yes, the teacher was allegedly fired but this is a rare scenario and this problem was uncovered on accident, other people were aware of the illegal ongoings and just allowed for them to continue, they asked themselves, “what do we do with this information?” as if it is not blatantly obvious that the man who decided to violate a students boundaries should be held responsible for their actions, but then again when are they? Just this past week a young woman was kidnapped and killed in London by a police man while she was simply walking home from a friends house. Everyday it seems as if women cannot even do simple things such as going to school or walking home without being put into danger by yet another man who never reaps the consequences necessary for change.
Since when I wrote this, there has been no criminal charges brought on to the teachers, but the original video of the teachers discussing the student has been released. In the video, they humiliate the student by saying she’s “not a good student”, “well put together”, while also calling her “smoking hot”. The fact that these teachers have no charges against them and may keep their jobs when they talk about their students in such a way is unacceptable. This injustice against children and young adults is disgusting and needs more attention brought to. When our teachers and those in charge of students are predators against us, with no punishments for wrongdoings, it only teaches them that they can get away with more than they think. This scenario reminds me of Spivak – can the subaltern speak? Throughout the entire investigation, everyone believes the young girl who was humiliated was completely underrepresented.
the released video to the public from cleveland.com
Rocky river High school
Great job on the diary! I really thought it was eye opening to read about the situation that went down, especially since it happened so close to home. It really makes me think about how much you can truly trust people, such as the two adults that were involved in the case and didn’t do much to protect the student. I think that students should be safest while at school, and they shouldn’t be put in situations like this such as that of the student in the case.
Thank you very much for sharing. I am distraught at the incident. I agree with you–it is unacceptable. The student was violated and is probably experiencing a whirlwind of emotions right now, so my sympathy is with her. It seems as if the world just keeps becoming more dangerous for women as time goes on. You would think that a school would be a safe place, but I guess not after this incident. Women should not feel predated as much as we do.
Thank you for sharing your post! I did not hear about this story on the news which is very upsetting to me. It is very disgusting how these teachers allowed this to happen, but it is a prime stander of bystanders. I also agree that we are taught in school to be respectful and do the right thing, yet this poor young woman was not treated with any respect.
Thank you for bringing attention to a topic that doesn’t seem to be represented enough in the media. It is unacceptable that young girls should have to worry about educators, who should serve as mentors and role models, violating them. It is appalling how the situation is being handled and the consequences, or lack thereof, the teachers involved are facing. This goes to show how this situation and others like this are mismanaged and allows for this vicious cycle to continue.
Good job bringing this story to light. This is an awful situation all around for everyone involved with this. They should be ashamed for taking so long to take less than the minimum expected course of action towards the offender. If this is the best the school system has when proof has been presented and the banter that was used in the leaked footage, it shocks me that their unprofessionalism on the matter hasn’t been discouraged in a statement from the school at the very least.