March 16, 2016 8:48 AM

If you're a teacher, remember that you have no right to be a sexual being

How many women are going to get fired from their jobs simply for having sexualized body parts that have been documented in photos? That’s the question I asked myself after coming across the story of a South Carolina engineering teacher who was just forced to resign because one of her students violated her privacy and sent her semi-nude photos to his classmates. It all started after Union County High School teacher Leigh Anne Arthur briefly left her classroom to monitor the halls. While she was away, one of her 16-year-old students went through her unlocked phone and found partially undressed images of the educator, which were meant for her husband…. “He told the whole class that he would send them to whoever wanted them,” Arthur told TV station WSPA. The student “told me ‘your day of reckoning is coming,’” she added.

It seems we now live in a world in which the inmates run the asylums and the children run the schools. Adults are held to absurd standards, while children are allowed free reign and taught that violating the privacy of their teachers is not their fault, not something to be called to account for, but rather something their teachers must be held responsible for. (If Mrs. X hadn’t done Y, my poor, precious little snowflake wouldn’t have acted out as he did. Therefore- BURN THE WITCH!!!)

The “adults” at Union County High School appear to see nothing wrong with blaming the victim. Without a doubt, Ms. Arthur erred in leaving her unlocked phone in a place where it would have been accessible to students…but to hold her solely responsible for the violation of her privacy while letting the child skate is unconscionable.

Was Ms. Arthur’s decision to leave pictures of a sexual nature on her phone a wise one? Of course not; being around children, you’d think she’d understand that…but that shouldn’t be the problem here. One of her students decided it would be fun to go through the pictures on her phone and disseminate the ones that would cause her the greatest embarrassment. The reaction from the school should have been swift and resolute; a clear message should have been sent that children UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES have the right to violate a teacher’s privacy. Of course, if that’s what happened, I’d most likely be writing about something else.

Yet the only one who appears to have been punished in this case was the teacher. The “adults” were scandalized that a teacher would have even moderately sexualized pictures on her phone, and so she became the guilty party- not the student who violated her privacy.

It’s unclear whether the unidentified student will get any punishment, which sends a horrible message. In fact this could have been a great teachable moment for the students, but the adults missed out on the opportunity because they’re too wrapped up in shaming adults who happen to do adult things during their free time.

Teaching kids to value privacy is incredibly important…. Now we can rely on kids spying in on adults and getting rewarded for it.

We also need to get to a point where something as normal and natural as the human body doesn’t shock everyone and provoke unnecessary punishment. Every single one of the administrators and teachers at Union County High has genitals, and each one of them has probably used their bodies in a sexual manner. The fact that they refused to empathize their peer and opted to punish her for being a human is pathetic.

The idea that sexuality- in whatever form, no matter how benign- is still something to be ashamed of, to be kept under wraps, is silly. Instead of teaching our children to understand that sexuality and the human body are perfectly natural and healthy, we pass along our hang-ups to them as we communicate the message that sex and sexuality are dirty, nasty, and under no circumstances discussed among polite company.

Even worse than the adults choosing to shame a teacher for the pictures on her phone (which, yes, should have been locked) is their willful ignorance of the egregious violation of her privacy. Instead of standing up for Ms. Arthur and punishing the student in question, she was forced to choose between resigning or eventually being fired.

There are online petitions demanding that Ms. Arthur be rehired, but she’s not certain she wants to work at a school in which children call the shots. It’s hard to fault her reluctance when you realize that “adults” blamed her for what happened. What reasonable person would want to teach at a school in which the “adults” hired as administrators could judge teachers so harshly for being a sexual human being?

The inmates are running the asylum…and one really has to wonder what the message the is for our children. In this case, it would seem to be that teachers have fewer rights and protections than other adults…and children need not be held responsible for violating a teacher’s privacy.

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This page contains a single entry by Jack Cluth published on March 16, 2016 8:48 AM.

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