Note to Teachers, Counselors, etc...

Dear Teachers, Counselors and Other People With Direct Care / Contact With Children:

Please stop fucking the children.

No, really. Just stop.

I found myself involved in a conversation this weekend about teacher-student relationships in the general sense, and specifically about said relationships developing into sexual ones. It was a conversation that had me thinking for a while after. And on Monday, I stumbled upon an article about a counselor at a home for children who had a sexual relationship with one of the children she was in care of. This prompted me to do a quick search of "teacher sex with student" on MLive, which produced over a thousand results. Ick.

My stance is simple: if you're the adult and the one in a position of authority, real or perceived, it's incumbent upon you to maintain a proper distance with the child. Maybe it's my background in auditing that has so strongly enforced the concept of remaining objective both in appearance and in fact that causes me to have such a strong reaction to situations like these. Or maybe it's because I have a nephew and I can't comprehend of a person of authority taking advantage of him. The thought makes me sick. I can't comprehend, as an adult, looking at a child as an object of sexual interest. I can barely comprehend dating someone under 30 at this point.

I don't care if your home life is terrible. I don't care if your spouse ignores you, or if you were abused as a child. I don't care if the kid made the first move. I don't care about any rationale you put forth about having an intimate / sexual relationship with a child (yep, to me that means someone under the age of consent or someone with whom you have a fiduciary responsibility to ensure his or her safety and security, both physical and emotional). Children are children and you should not have inappropriate relationships with them. Resolve your shit on your own. Don't involve innocent children. It screws them up, regardless of what anyone else says.

Thanks in advance for your cooperation,
Carrie

PS - No, I never had an inappropriate relationship with a teacher. Thankfully.