Washington Post Actually Runs Piece Arguing Teachers Shouldn’t be Jailed for Sex with Underage Stude

[eridani]

Even if consensual, the power relationship always makes this a no-no. And the student in the original story committed suicide, fershrissakes!

http://www.nationofchange.org/washington-post-actually-runs-piece-arguing-teachers-shouldn-t-be-jailed-sex-underage-students-13781

It is certainly true that statutory rape laws have not eliminated sex between teachers and underage students. It is also true that murder laws have not eliminated homicide. That is not an argument for decriminalizing murder.

Moreover, the piece ignores one of the primary reasons why sex between an adult teacher and an underage student is a crime — the tremendous power gulf between the two parties. Even beyond the gulf that often exists in statutory rape cases, teachers wield tremendous authority over students. They have the power to discipline students, to detain students (that’s where the word “detention” comes from), and often to suspend students based on their mere word given to a school official. In the district where I taught, I briefly had the power to literally beat a student with a wooden paddle (a power I never used). The policy was changed to require my school’s dean of students to administer corporal punishment, but he was naturally inclined to side with teachers who asked him to paddle a student. And, of course, all of this ignores the power teachers have over the students in their classrooms to set their grades — a power that can potentially shape the remainder of the student’s future.

Asking public servants entrusted with these awesome powers to not use their charges as a vehicle for their own orgasms is hardly an unreasonable request. Nor should a person who violates this trust be treated as anything other than a serious criminal. Teachers can limit their sex partners to the vast universe of people in the world that they do not wield authority over, and the law generally presumes that they have taken advantage of their power when they choose to do otherwise.

The Washington Post opinion page’s decision to publish this piece is the latest in a series of questionable editorial decisions by that paper. Most recently, the paper published two pieces by its regular columnists arguing that George Zimmerman “understandably suspected” Trayvon Martin of being a criminal “because he was black” and that racial profiling is “common sense.”

[BainsBane]

1. I don't even know what to say

It's so incredibly shameful for pro-rapists to be able to spread that crap in a major newspaper.

[MadrasT]

2. Unbelievable.

(shakes head)

I found the article in the Post and there are over 3000 comments... the hundred or so I skimmed through were mostly negative.

[Sheldon Cooper]

3. I wonder if this new editorial position have anything to do with Jeff Bezos

recently buying the Post? I assume the ownership has tremendous sway over editorial policy. So, that leads to me to wonder quite a lot about Mr. Bezos, and none of it is good.

[ismnotwasm]

4. Well referencing another OP

Creepers be creepy. If anyone currently whining about that shit needs a definition or an explanation, here it is.

[redqueen]

5. This kind of thing is hardly new. It's just that more people are actually noticing now.

I doubt it will stop anytime soon, but it's good to see the negative reaction to such rape-culture supporting pieces getting more noticeable.

[Squinch]

6. WaPo has gone completely around the bend. They seem to be courting child molesters.

[redqueen]

7. Count The Atlantic in that group as well.

I'm starting to wonder how many people noticed the recent pieces in that rag.

In this one, pedophilia is compared to heterosexuality and homosexuality. It is also referred to as "the cross generational lifestyle".
http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2013/08/i-pedophile/278921/

[seabeyond]

8. you know. this is where we have been saying the harm will come with the normalization and

obsessiveness of the porn world. little by little the line of decency is corroded to such an extent i am sure there will be those that point ot my post and rant about my audacity to mention decency in the same sentence as our sex life.

nothing is out of bounds. everything is ok with fetish or fantasy, we no longer have to hold any kind of line. papers are just the mainstream normalizing the porn world.

[redqueen]

10. Yep that's exactly where it's going.

In this companion piece, the expert interviewed never mentions pornography even once, despite stating that we should all be supporting pedophiles who don't actually molest any children.

Yes, let's just gloss over the fact that the vast majority is consuming child porn.

http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2013/08/what-can-be-done-about-pedophilia/279024/

And let's not discuss the fact that people are pushing to legalize and normalize simulated child porn. Because god fucking forbid their boners aren't fucking catered to. Thy simply MUST have porn! Expecting them to masturbate while only IMAGINING their sick fucking shit is cruel and inhumane.

This is some severely fucked up bullshit, and apparently not a big deal to the left.

[seabeyond]

12. they do not have the imaginative capability of coming up with the perverted, degrading,

demeaning shit (and i mean shit literally), that the porn world is able to feed them. above and beyond what the normal joe can imagine to jack off to

[Squinch]

9. Yes. And wasn't it you who recently posted the Atlantic's apologetics for rapists too? This feels

almost organized, doesn't it?

[redqueen]

11. Hmmm, are you thinking of this thread?

http://www.democraticunderground.com/125525351

I don't think it's organized personally, it seems more like just the same old same old, but with added attention to and recognition of these aspects of rape culture. Hustler has featured shoots of women as concentration camp victims, as gang rape victims, (famously) as meat being put into a grinder... only feminist and religious groups seemed to notice or care ... Liberals still treat flynt as a hero.

It's only in recent years that this kind of shit is really getting called out and I think that's why this stuff is more noticeable now. For years publications as lofty as the New York Times have been portraying rape victims as somehow at fault, and portraying rapists as sympathetic. It's good to see it is finally at least being widely called out.

[seabeyond]

14. ah... and stick a dick in a womans mouth to shut her up. but though misogynist, it was ok, cause

du does not like that woman so even if misogynistic, justified.

[Squinch]

15. That's the one. And it's kind of interesting that just before

I read your comment about "same old same old" I was reading Silvia Federici's "Caliban and the Witch," the part where she talks about how France and Venice decriminalized he rape of poor women in the 14th century, creating an atmosphere where gang rapes were almost seen as sport.

Fascinating book, with an interesting take on where all of this started. But I guess it does support your "same old same old" assumption.

[seabeyond]

13. if you add in our media, our "popular" tv shows where rape and sexual torture for women are mens

entertainment, and i am not talking porn, but on our cable channels, ya.... seems pretty damn organized.

[mercuryblues]

16. When she has

a child that was preyed on by a person 40 years their senior, she will be changing her tune.

[seabeyond]

17. i have thought about my boys at 14. a little older and a little younger.

i would be outraged if there was a predator so much older manipulating my boys and their emotion and using sex to entice, having them go someplace they are in no place emotionally to handle. my oldest is very mature for his age. when he was young, i would tell him, he will have the world by the tail once he is done with highschool and well into the adult world. child world was never his. but i watched with his first GF at 15, 16. kids his age. and the devastation on the first break up took me by surprise. i really expected him to not be so.... all that. and he was. if it was an older woman manipulating him sexually.... the damage that would be done.

i agree. let a parent look at their own kids and think it thru.

that son is 18 and off to college. i see such a difference in maturity and ability to handle these emotional adult experience. a couple years reallly really matters.

[mercuryblues]

18. predators

choose their victims very carefully. (I want to say this very carefully, so it comes out right).
He preyed on a child, perhaps with some problems then groomed her into "consent" Predators always believe they love and are helping their victims, when in reality is the opposite. He pushed her over the edge. He should be charged with her death. A 14 year old child no matter how mature they appear is no match for a 54 year old. hell they have a rough enough time with kids their own age.


My youngest is 12 and He is getting to the age where everything is so important, well, except homework. He is a very sensitive kid anyhow so I am not looking forward to the dating years and heartbreaks.

[seabeyond]

19. youa re so right on and what really bothered me, that i did not even try to communicate. year after

year. class after class. this teacher watched the kids and picked the one most receptive for whatever reason, and the most vulnerable. how many times and how many girls did he put feelers out before he hooked one.

that is what these creeps are.

and i am so glad to hear that even though you have a boy, you fuckin recognize sensitive. geeez. i get so tired of grown men saying how much a 12 year old boy would like to be fucked by their teacher. really? i have done 12 and my TWO boys would be a mess. sick.