Job Discussion Forums

[marblez]

[GambateBingBangBOOM]

[marblez]

[Dillinger]

OP back again.

Wow, I hadn't checked in for a couple of weeks. I'm a little surprised at the amount of responses. I'm also a little surprised by the nature of some of the posts.

1. To begin with. I wish I had never used the word paedophile in the original post, simply because the semantic and legal arguments that have occured are largely irrelevant in my opinion. The man was a teacher who had sexual relations with his pupil who was below the age of consent in his country. He clearly knew his actions were wrong because he kept them hidden. According to the record this guy was called into the principle's office (before the abuse was discovered) because of complaints from the parents' of two of his other students about sexually suggestive comments he was repeatedly making in class. The guy is a sleaze. In my time working with him I heard him make several comments that were either racist, sexist, or simply offensive. Paedophile or not, he betrayed the trust of his student, her parents, and his employer all for the purposes of satisfying his own selfish desires.

2. The comments that some have made on here suggest that he should be free to work with children and teens again as long as he doesn't seem to be repeating his past actions:

"Has this guy been doing anything to indicate that he's up to his old tricks?

Why don't you talk to the guy? Ask if he's doing ok working with kids

My advice would be to do nothing unless it is clear that the person is backsliding into the behaviors that ran him afoul of the legal system. It really is not your business.

No indication was given that he is doing anything inappropriate now."

The obvious problem is, of course, that if he is repeating his "old tricks" no one would know about it apart from him and a scared teenage girl. Crimes like sexual abuse are done in the dark, that's part of what makes them so devastating.

3. Another concept which seems to have come up in the replies is that the man is somehow being persecuted by do-gooders and "witch burners" and that his 'human rights are being violated.' I'm not sure where this comes from. Nobody has advocated lynching the man or castrating him or barring him from securing employment. The only step contemplated and so far taken, is to inform the local Ministry of Education and other language schools about this man's actions in the States so that he is not allowed to work with minors again. This hardly constitutes a violation of his rights. If I steal from a bank, serve my time in prison, and am released then I have the right to live my life and find work. I do not, however, have the right to be employed as a security guard in a bank.

There are consequences to our actions. I would say that screwing your underage students constitutes sufficient grounds for losing your teaching priviledges. Move on, find another line of work.

We all have mistakes in our past that we would perhaps not want exposed in our current lives. We all also have the right to expect some level of privacy. The problem here is that this man's previous actions raise a very legitimate concern that other inexperienced and vulnerable young people could be hurt by him. In this case I think we as teachers do carry a responsibility to try and minimize the potential for that damage to occur. In this case that means alerting the proper regional authorities.

As it happens, it probably won't result in anything being done anyway. Just today I noticed a sign for this man's new school. It looks like he's back in business and the parents of his future students will know of no reason not to entrust him with their daughters.

[moonraven]

Which is more important here, OP: Your need to play judge and jury, or the man's human rights?

I am pretty judgmental (INFJ on the Meyer-Briggs scale), but I would definitely think VERY carefully about trying to play judge in this case.

If this guy was deferred from spending time in jail, he had to go to a treatment program--and if the psychologist who treated him believes he is "cured" of his compulsive bahvior, he could even ended up suing you.

[thelmadatter]

Seems pretty obvious that the OP's real need is to protect minors.