A 41-year-old Enochs High School teacher in Modesto has resigned and moved in with an 18-year-old student. The reaction has been largely shock, disapproval and betrayal.
The teen's mother has waged a very public campaign on Facebook since last week, when her daughter moved out of the family's home and into a Modesto apartment with the man. He has left his wife and children, one of whom is a junior at Enochs.
Modesto police are investigating whether there was inappropriate contact before the girl turned 18 in the fall. And school district and teachers union officials worry that an ethical and moral line has been crossed, even if the student is legally an adult.
James Hooker was placed on paid administrative leave Feb. 3 by Modesto City Schools and resigned Feb. 22, he said Tuesday. Hooker taught business and computer classes, and he was an adviser to three active campus clubs.
"In making our choice, we've hurt a lot of people," Hooker acknowledged. "We keep asking ourselves, 'Do we make everyone else happy or do we follow our hearts?' " Hooker and Enochs senior Jordan Powers said Tuesday in an interview at The Bee that they are making a life for themselves "day by day."
Powers was in Hooker's virtual business class and an associated club until his suspension. They said they met when she was a freshman.
Tammie Powers, Jordan's mother, said she believes Hooker pursued her daughter. She said her daughter's grades fell this year, and Jordan had panic attacks. "I believe it was the stress of the lie," Tammie Powers said. She said her daughter was "always compliant," kept her room tidy at their Waterford home and minded her curfew. No R-rated movies until she was of age. No lone trips to the mall or the movies.
"I was really, really careful. I wanted her to be safe," she said. "In hindsight, in retrospect, I should have looked at things differently," Powers said.......
Looking back over phone records, she said she found an estimated 8,000 text messages between the teacher and student going back through the summer. In the fall, about 32 texts a day, starting at 6 a.m. were recorded, she said......
On Facebook, Powers has called Hooker "an arrogant pervert," among other things, and urged readers to "help get the word out" about his involvement with a student.
The hundreds of responses are, for the most part, supportive of her. Many express disbelief.
David Wainwright posted that he sees teacher and student as complicit in the relationship, then added: "I just wouldn't of expected this from my fav teacher. What is the world coming to?"
Modesto City Schools Superintendent Pam Able confirmed Hooker's resignation Tuesday morning.
"Allegations of Mr. Hooker having a relationship with a student is the source of great concern for staff, students and parents. I consider student-teacher dating relationships to be not only unprofessional, but immoral," Able said via e-mail.
Modesto City Schools Board President Rubén Villalobos said Tuesday: "Schools need to be a safe place. Anything less than that is a failure." He said he could not comment on the case, but said in general teacher-student romances are wrong "because of that unequal balance of power."
Hooker knows his decisions may have cost him his teaching career. He taught business courses for 15 years and advised three campus clubs — Future Business Leaders of America, Mock Trial Club and Virtual Business Club. Extra jobs such as the clubs earned Hooker $28,000 in added pay in 2009, the latest figures immediately available. District records show Hooker made $110,537 that year.
Hooker and Jordan Powers said their relationship was strictly teacher-student until mid-December, when they started talking more frequently and then dated. "I just kind of knew that she's the one," he said.
Powers turned 18 on Sept. 5, and Modesto police say that makes her a consenting adult. However, Lt. Rick Armendariz said there is an ongoing investigation involving a high school teacher and student.
Hooker confirmed Tuesday that he remains the object of a police probe. He said he is confident he will be cleared of accusations that any physical relationship started while Powers was a minor. "There's no evidence of that. There's no proof of that. It didn't exist," Hooker said.He said the criticism is part of a campaign of lies he and Powers face online and in person. "I've been portrayed as a monster through all of this," Hooker said. "I'm not a monster. I'm not any different than I've always been."....
Hooker said he hopes to get a job in the private sector. "We're just taking it day by day," he said.
A couple of things about this.
One, people are treating Powers, the student, like a victim. As if she was seduced, and that there's no possibility that she was fully aware of what was she herself was doing through the whole thing. People want to paint her as this helpless girl, but at 18, this girl is a young woman. As much as everyone think that this is a horrible thing for him to do...do I think it's illegal, no. Nor does it make him a pedophile, because by definition a pedophile is one who is sexually attracted to prepubescent children. It really irks me how society treats females as if we're these helpless beings.
Second thing. I find it funny how some guys I've encountered online (mainly through the man-o-sphere) think that him leaving his wife is indicative of something being wrong with HER, whether it is her not being hot enough, or something else. Basically, SOMETHING had to be wrong with HER. But these same men who complain about women initiating most of divorces focus on the women and never apply the same mentality in the case of man divorcing his wife - that there MUST be something wrong with the husband for these women to divorce them.
And yes, I'm aware that some women do divorce for unfair and flaky reasons, and can be horrible wives. But women aren't the cause of all ills of marriage all the time.
No comments:
Post a Comment