Stuff You Oughta Know...Without Being Told by a Judge

Sometimes I have a hard time separating the real news from the fake news. Newsworthy today, however, is that new school teachers should not have sex with their students.

I can't imagine anyone needs a judge to tell them this, but apparently, they do. An Orange County (FL) judge says that new schoolteachers should sit through a half-hour presentation that would tell teachers "how damaging such relationships could be."

The judge wants to be accompanied for his presentation by a man he sent to jail for having sex with one of his students. That teacher is now serving a five-year sentence. In a related story, the jailed teacher thinks that this is a good idea!

Friends, we have a nominee for Moron of the Week. There are times when your actions are beyond what society deems acceptable behavior. Trying to defend those actions will often find you placing your oversized hoof into your mouth.

"When you're dealing with a high-school environment and you're a 22-year-old college student, you can easily get involved with a student when they're 16, 17," he said.

Aside from the fact that I don't buy into this for a second, how, exactly, does this explain his own situation? He was a 28 year-old man when his relationship began with a high school FRESHMAN. When I last checked, high school freshmen are either 13 or 14 years old. An argument could be made that a 22 year-old guy could pick up a 17 year-old girl at a club, not realize how young she is, and find himself in a uncomfortable situation -- or worse, a relationship. BUT, a 28 year-old man and a 13 year-old girl is acceptable in what circumstance?

And, yet, the man still couldn't remove his giant foot from his mouth.

"I don't think it's fair that I'm labeled as a sex offender and am grouped with other guys that are truly malicious and harm and kill little kids," he said. "There was nothing violent about my crime. Nothing against anyone's will."

Proving to me that this guy still needs a lot of therapy, he still has no concept of what he had done as being wrong. He seems not to get that having a position of power -- an educator, classroom leader, or really any position of authority (later in life, this may become your boss?) -- gives you an unfair advantage in assessing the emotional attachments of those assigned to your care. I have no problem lumping this creep in with the other pedophiles.

As far as the original story goes, fortunately, the head of the local teachers association finds the presentation proposal "insulting."