I was a lot more fired up to write about female teacher-male student molestation scandals last night, when I thought there was a brand new scandal on the heels of the Dry Creek situation. I swear there was a teaser for a story about an “FTMS” scandal with a mugshot of a completely different woman. But that was right before bedtime. Turns out, like many stories are on the Sacramento news, that was a flub. I just confirmed with RonTopofIt, he saw the same thing. Get it together, people.
But still, there’s much to discuss. It’s a shame that the reporting on cases like this always has to highlight the “double standard” controversy, but it’s still shocking when you hear the double standard working in soundbites and it goes completely unremarked. Like the neighbor of Kelly Spaich, who was quoted on the evening news saying “She’s an attractive woman… seems like she could get a man.” Or the numerous acquaintances with the perp who say “she’s a good person… I’m not going to judge her, I’ll leave that for the jury.”
Here’s the thing, and it’s related to my rant the other day about victim reporting. Is it true that acquaintances wouldn’t say those things about a male pervert? Or is it true that the news wouldn’t be on the lookout for those soundbites about a male pervert? Even though they do a good service by reporting on the double standard, I have a hunch that the news media are part of the problem on this one.
There is no way to argue that this case, if the allegations are true, is not rape. Why do we need to hear from anyone who says otherwise? Meeting the news producers where they are, shouldn’t those quotes be on the cutting room floor in favor of “exclusive video” of the victim’s parent, saying I hope they get this monster off the street?
Also I don’t have the time to research it this morning, are male teachers usually placed on “indefinite paid administrative leave” while being arraigned on molestation charges? I’m sure the double standard doesn’t run that deep but I’d be interested to know.
P.S. “Monster Teacher” is apparently what morning DJs Rob, Arnie & Dawn call it… I don’t listen to them but this was referenced last night on the news. Apparently it is a big topic for them, so kudos to you three! Mmmm Kudos…
The Sac Rag 
This happened about fifteen years ago, but it’s something, at least.
I moved to a new town my sophomore year of highschool, and when I started the year in my band classes (big surprise, I was a band nerd) I learned that our band director had started about two or three months before the end of the previous year.
The reason being was that the previous band director was in jail. Yes, statutory rape, and with one or two young ladies who were students in his classes.
The impression that I got from it was that as soon as he was arrested, and that it had been established that there was a sense of cohesive credit to the charge against him, he was canned and also ended up in prison pretty fast.
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That’s an excellent observation about how certain types of soundbites appear to be sought out for certain types of cases (I also saw the clip where the neighbor lady said the teacher should be able to attract a man — I cringed for that neighbor lady and her family). When there’s an unattractive teacher doing this, you wonder if reporters would find someone to say: “Well, she’s so ugly, you can sort of understand why she’d have to prey on her students.”
What if a comment were based on a person’s race instead of gender: “She’s white….she should know better than that”? Would that be left on the cutting room floor, or would they run the quote and expose the person as a latent racist (versus a latent sexist)?
I get a kick out of the coverage of school-related incidents. You can always expect a mother or grandmother to be interviewed near the campus through her vehicle’s driver side window (and, there has to be a school-aged child visible in the passenger seat to prove that this is an actual “concerned mother” and not just some random lady driving down the road).
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