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RBP
02-16-2011, 12:00 PM
chicagotribune.com

In teacher-student sex case, a double standard

Public reactions more lighthearted because accused teacher was female, student male, some say

By Michelle Manchir, Tribune reporter

February 16, 2011

Underscoring the public conversation about the arrest of a female Plainfield North High School physical education teacher seems to be the double standard virtually unavoidable in sexual crimes.

Reaction might have been different, perhaps more one of outrage, some say, had the teacher been a man and the teen a girl.

The teacher involved in this case, Ashley Blumenshine, 27, who had coached gymnastics in addition to her teaching duties at the school since 2006, has pleaded not guilty to aggravated sexual assault. But a Will County assistant state's attorney has said both Blumenshine and the teen admitted to having sex.

Plainfield police found them in a vehicle behind a Kohl's store Jan. 4.

With interest in the case reaching far outside of the village, some members of the community have questions about what it means to call the teen a victim.

"Everyone thinks that just because it's a boy it's not a big deal," said Mary Welch, whose grandson attends Plainfield North. "They kind of took it lightly because it isn't a girl."

Welch said she has heard giggles and lighthearted chatter among some students and parents since the incident occurred.

Patrick Bergman, a Plainfield father of a boy in elementary school, said there may have been more community uproar had the incident involved a female teen.

"You're talking about testosterone-filled adolescent boys," he said. "They're going to be more-than-willing participants."

The jokes and the perception that the teen involved falls short of victimhood is not uncommon in these scenarios, said Juanita Ortiz, an expert on crime and gender and a professor at the University of Illinois at Springfield.

"When boys sexually interact with older women they're viewed as lucky," she said. "When girls sexually interact with an older male it's seen as them being victimized."

But that kind of thinking is shortsighted, Ortiz said. Minors of any age are not cognitively developed enough to make important decisions about sexual interactions or able to "fully understand the consequences of such actions later in their lives."

"There should be repulsion when either an underage male or female has sexual contact with an adult," Ortiz said.

Joel Falco, a psychologist based in Elmhurst who treats people with problematic sexual behaviors, said complicating the situation is the perception that men and boys want sex all the time, which makes it hard for people to think of a boy as the victim.

As a teenager, he's perceived as being nearly a man, Falco said. "The adolescent girl would be seen differently."

Numbers are hard to come by for sexual crimes involving teachers and students. The Illinois State Board of Education doesn't track teacher certification revocations by arrest, and state police don't track arrests by occupation.

No group tracks the number of teacher-student sexual assaults, said Charol Shakeshaft, an education professor at Virginia Commonwealth University who has researched educator misconduct.

"Districts may have let teachers resign without bringing the abuse to light," Shakeshaft said. "Some abuse will be in local police records, but not all."

The Will County state's attorney's office, which is handling the prosecution, declined to comment on the case or on how it handles sexual assault cases in general.

The Cook County state's attorney's office says that, from a legal standpoint, a person's sex plays no role in how such a case is handled but that social mores can still influence the outcome.

"Society may take a different view of these cases, which could in turn translate into the potential jury pool," Cook County state's attorney's office spokesman Andrew Conklin said.

At the high school, students have responded to the incident with curiosity and grief, said Tom Hernandez, a Plainfield Community Consolidated School District 202 spokesman. Some students seemed to react as though there'd been a death.

"The teacher was here one day, and gone the next," Hernandez said.

For Bev Jordan, a Plainfield mother, the situation makes her nervous about sending her three elementary-school-age boys, who now attend private schools, into the Plainfield district.

"I feel like it's kind of being swept under the rug," she said. But, she added, "it doesn't matter where they go, it can happen."

Teh One Who Knocks
02-16-2011, 12:31 PM
I think it should be all directly proportional to how hot the female teacher is :-k










8-[

RBP
02-16-2011, 03:16 PM
:x

:slap:

Teh One Who Knocks
02-16-2011, 03:18 PM
:lol:

Took ya long enough :P

Southern Belle
02-16-2011, 03:19 PM
It's men who think it's ok.

RBP
02-16-2011, 03:32 PM
It's men who think it's ok.

Of course it is, because women are too feeling and understanding to think that - versus men who only have the ability to think with their cocks.

Please. :roll:

RBP
02-16-2011, 03:40 PM
It's not even about the boys, it's about people refusing to believe woman can be evil because it's been pounded into our heads that men are the evil ones.

Godfather
02-16-2011, 07:54 PM
Like this article makes clear, there are several aspects (one being that we have trouble conceptualizing women as evil.

But the problem of viewing young male victims as 'lucky' really is a curious one to me, because as a guy I get it. It's actually rather hard to avoid (as in the case of that female teacher posted here - no doubt she was cute. It's hard to turn the penis-thinking side of your brain off).

It takes discipline and understanding to not think of it that way, it really is programmed in there and will take a lot of attention to overcome. If it ever is....

I still think this is a really fascinating phenomenon RBP. Interesting article.

RBP
02-16-2011, 08:07 PM
I don't think it's an issue isolated to this topic. I think boys (and men) are overlooked and disregarded in many areas.

Binky
02-16-2011, 10:55 PM
Is there really a problem with conceptualizing women as evil, or is that you know we're so damn evil, you don't want to conceptualize admitting it?
I dare you jk lol

Hal-9000
02-16-2011, 11:22 PM
I'll say it again....I had a few teachers throughout the years and if they were sexually predatory and chose me as a target, I would have jumped at the opportunity.(Ms. Carmichael....holy wow)

Personal feelings aside...

I agree wholeheartedly with RBP's stance that women abusers receive far less disciplinary measures than men who commit the same crimes.Even the words used to describe their actions are less brutal....

Woman have been complaining about equality for decades now, this is part of it.If a woman seduces a minor, she's breaking the law and has committed abuse.It's about time the legal system treated those criminals using the same yardstick as men who abuse underage girls.

Binky
02-16-2011, 11:24 PM
Absolutely, women are just as messed up as men...