Teachers and sex scandals (Bellevue count: 2.5 if you count Howell as a Half)

I graduated from Bellevue High School back in 2003.  It has been ten years since I walked out of the building for the last time as a student.  In those ten years since my departure, Bellevue has been in the news twice for student-teacher sexual misconduct.  Bellevue is a small town.  Pretty much everyone knows everyone, meaning everyone knows everyone else's business.  My graduating class had 47 students which is pretty small for a public school.  In this small environment, one develops tight relationships with most everyone in the school.  There aren't really clicks.  The jock and the nerd in many instances are friends in a school like Bellevue.  I hung with many different people in my time in Bellevue and knew pretty much everyone in the whole school. I know the teachers did too.  I had close relationships with some of the teachers there.  Not inappropriate by any means, but I feel the teachers feel a tighter bond with students at a school like Bellevue.   

There were some attractive teachers in my day.  I mean one was a Ben-gal cheerleader.  It seemed every year the Home-Ec teacher got hotter and hotter.  For some reason they only stayed a year which confused me.  Guys would make flirtatious comments to the attractive teachers from time to time, but none of them were serious.  I mean I went to high school right after the Mary Kay Letourneu news story broke.  Mary Kay was Vili Fualaau's 6th grade teacher when she started having an affair with him.  Mary was married and had a family.  This didn't stop her from doing what she did with the student she met when he was just a 2nd grader.  I remember watching the made for TV movie on USA and it was something that just memorizes you into viewing.  It's an intriguing story.  I mean I'm sure all guys in this world have fantasized about being with a female teacher. If a male teacher, does this to a girl, it's creepy.  When it's a woman who does it with a male student, it is hypnotizing.  Mary was an attractive teacher with a home, a family, and she taught which is what she loved doing.  She threw it all away for a 6th grader.  Why do these women do this and what fascinates the public so much about cases such as this?

  Mary Kay Letourneu

Bellevue's most recent scandal involves Sally Wyatt who is being accused of having inappropriate relations with one of her former students.  She's a 25 year old graduate of Morehead State.  She almost could pass as one of the students.  She doesn't look any older than the student she is accused of having relations with.  She coached cheerleading (by the way is cheerleading a sport? I guess so if people were getting bars for it), and track.  The student was on her track squad.  From what I hear, the student was asked to be a summer "running partner" with Mrs. Wyatt, notice the Mrs. instead of Ms.  She is married to her high school sweetheart.  Anyway, apparently a girlfriend of the student uncovered texts between Wyatt and the student and of course. Wyatt then resigned and Twitter/facebook began blowing up. The boy's facebook page was littered with "you're a legend" and more compliments. 

Sally Wyatt

Sally was the perfect recipe for someone who could get trapped in this web.  She was a beautiful teacher who looked no older than the students.  I'm sure boys were hitting on her constantly.  She was in her own relationship since high school and never got to explore being single.  She was most likely pretty popular in high school and wanted to relive the old days.  She may have wanted to feel control over someone younger.  Her mistake was giving out her number.  You can't do that.  She may have done it innocently enough, but I believe you have to know personal things will be talked about.  That can't be done.  She's got to be the adult.  None of this is okay. Sarah Jones ended up staying with the student she had relations with and so did Letourneu.  We don't know what the future holds for Wyatt but I doubt the husband will take her back nor should he.  All the adolescent boys find it to be a game, and if you get the teacher then you win and apparently you're worshiped.  They don't weigh the consequences of the lives they may be affecting by having this affair.  That's why all the responsibility needs to go on Wyatt.  She may never teach again.  She may have to rework her way up in a new career like the other Bellevue teacher involved in one of these.  Teachers need to draw a line.  I know it's a lot different and harder now with social media but don't get in the profession if you don't think you can handle it.  I do feel some sympathy for attractive teachers in the profession though, because they are constantly getting flirted with and guys are constantly trying to get with them, but you need the mental will power to handle it.

The previous Bellevue teacher wasn't very attractive and I believe hers was to try to live high school the way she wished it had gone the first time.  She would have parties with the popular kids and things like that and that shows me that she wanted to relive those days.  I've come to the conclusion that it just takes one reason for these ladies to do what they do.  Letourneu was the gate opener and now with social media it has become easier and more commonplace for these women to interact with students.  They need to be more careful.  These boys are horny and young and they can lure these women in especially if they are tired and bored of their lives, trying to relive their younger days, or trying to live a new past. Sometimes the women can be predators like Nicole Howell who would invite kids from Bellevue to her bar to flirt and ultimately got in trouble for some things that happened in Dayton, and some could be prey like Andrea Conners from Highlands who I believe boys talked her into crossing the line.  

Andrea Conners

Either way, the adult HAS to be the adult.  You have to stop it and never even tow with the line.  These women look ridiculous and the sad part is many of them are married.  I suggest that they doll down and don't require them to wear makeup and try to look attractive to the students.  I know that's impossible but I think I remember hearing in the Conners case that she started dressing up more and more for school when she started developing feelings for this boy.  

The reason this is all intriguing to us as a public is that it involves women and men all have had that fantasy as a kid (It's intriguing in the way that the movie The Graduate is intriguing where Dustin Hoffman is getting seduced by a much older women).

The Graduate

I believe it also is so shocking but it's kind of becoming more and more common that when you see an attractive teacher you almost expect to see her on the news in a few years.   It's sad that the world has come to that. Educators should be educators and nothing more.  To me, school has changed a lot since I went 10 years ago.  Every kid has a cell phone and they are learning on IPads.  Myspace didn't even exist and we weren't sleeping with our teachers.  I blame the system, technology, and most of all the women who do it. Some to feel young again, and some to feel wanted again.  Whatever the reason I blame them.

Winner of the Day: The Dinosaurs, because they left when they were on top and didn't stick around long enough to see our world go through the craziness that it is now.

Loser of the Day: Ryan Braun.  The guy lied about taking steroids, basically claimed he was screwed over by the system and animatedly  stated he was wrongfully accused and ruined another man's life then takes a deal and admits he took them all along.  This guy is lower than dirt, almost as bad if not worse than Lance Armstrong.

Qute of the Day:"Age cannot wither her, nor custom stale her infinite variety. Other women cloy the appetites they feed, but she makes hungry where most she satisfies."-William Shakespeare

Song of the Day: Mrs. Robinson by Simon and Garfunkel

Goosebumps book of the Day: The Abonible Snowman of Pasadena