TEACHER-STUDENT SEX ... ONGOING & NEVERENDING?

A few days back the Waterloo Region Record advised us that yet another teacher is up on criminal charges due to alleged sexual activity with one of his students. Now I had at first thought that we were talking a high school student and I was going to raise the elephant in the room and that is whether or not for example a sixteen year old to eighteen year old is either too young for sex or whether they've already been sexually active prior to the teacher coming along. The problem with that elephant is upon rereading the newspaper article I'm getting the strong impression we aren't talking secondary but in fact elementary school. Oh my but that just took things way out of the realm of "oops my bad". The age of consent is raised when it involves a person in a position of authority over a young person plus there decidely aren't many parents who send their high school kids to school and would stand for a teacher getting intimately involved with them. Once we are talking junior high I believe we are way beyond breech of trust and basically into statutory rape regardless of consent, simply based upon the age of the child/student.

So now we have a different elephant in the room. This teacher (allegedly) is damaging the reputations of all the good teachers out there. This teacher deserves initial union protection but at some point if proven guilty needs to be dropped like a hot potatoe. The elephant when minors are concerned is this. Are pedophiles with university degrees targeting children through their career choice? Does teachers' college adequately screen for either prior convictions or even serious allegations involving minors? Theoretically since the Ron Archer scandal our school board (WRDSB) are obligated from the teacher level to senior Board staff to immediately report any suspicions whatsoever. That was a long overdue change. Now perhaps more care and accountability is required even before a teacher enters the classroom.