# Again??? HS teacher has relationship with student \[edited title\] **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [May 27, 2010, 1:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/again-hs-teacher-has-relationship-with-student-edited-title/540941 "2010-05-27T13:12:08Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Chicagojeff](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b19c9b/32.png) [@Chicagojeff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chicagojeff)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2010, 1:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/again-hs-teacher-has-relationship-with-student-edited-title/540941/1 "2010-05-27T13:12:08Z")
Okay this is the hot story in Atlanta… but pretty much it could be anywhere. Apologies if this topic has been done to death… but I’m wondering if this has been going on and only now we are learning about it. [http://www.ajc.com/news/gwinnett-teacher-quits-after-536249.html](http://www.ajc.com/news/gwinnett-teacher-quits-after-536249.html) The Teacher of the Year at Shiloh High School has resigned after admitting to having a sexual relationship with a 17-year-old student, according to records obtained by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Keenon Aampay Hall, 29, left a promising career as an English teacher at the Gwinnett County school amid allegations that she seduced a senior who came to her for homework help. An investigative file on the case compiled by the school system’s human resources division contains the student’s accounts of sexual trysts at a hotel, a friend’s home and in the teacher’s classroom during school hours. The report also says that pornography was found on Hall’s Gwinnett County schools laptop. The student, a player on Shiloh’s football team who is to graduate Friday, claimed that Hall gave him gifts and pressured him to commit to their six-month relationship by giving her a baby, according to the file. When he declined, the student’s family said, Hall gave him a failing grade, prompting him to report the relationship to school officials. “The allegation of the inappropriate behavior came to light because the teacher decreased the student’s grade,” Gwinnett schools spokeswoman Sloan Roach said. Gwinnett County Public Schools police are investigating the incident. The governor recently signed a new law making it illegal for teachers to have sex with students, even if the sex is consensual. In addition, the Georgia Professional Standards Commission, which has the authority to revoke Hall’s teaching certificate, is scheduled to review the complaint next week. Hall, elected by her colleagues as Shiloh’s Teacher of the Year, could not be reached for comment Wednesday. “I am very disturbed by this situation, I think she should have been terminated,” said Ericka Pender, the teen’s mother, from her North Carolina home. “She wanted the relationship to go further and was threatening my son. She said she was going to make him fail.” The Atlanta Journal-Constitution is not publishing the name of the student because it does not generally identify victims of sexual crimes. Sid Camp, executive director of Gwinnett’s Division of Human Resources, told the state that Hall “admitted to having a sexual relationship with the student.” Hall wrote a brief statement to the school district saying that it was a “consenual relationship,” misspelling the word. She said at least one other teacher knew about the romance. Connie Hall said her daughter is a stellar teacher admired by peers who went out of her way to help students learn. Keenon Hall went to Shiloh in 2004 as a substitute and worked her way from a teacher’s assistant to a respected certified teacher and cheerleading coach, her mother said. She said her daughter eventually became overwrought with stress caused by mouthy teens, pushy parents and administrators who failed to support hard-working teachers. She began to lose sleep and shed hair over her $35,600-a-year job, her mother said. “She loved teaching and thought she could change the world,” said Hall, who says she tried to push her daughter to seek a higher-paying profession. “My daughter didn’t have any inappropriate relationship with no under-aged student. She resigned for medical reasons, that’s what her paperwork shows.” ---
**Author:** ![EvilTOJ](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ee59a6/32.png) [@EvilTOJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EvilTOJ)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2010, 1:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/again-hs-teacher-has-relationship-with-student-edited-title/540941/2 "2010-05-27T13:22:46Z")
In before “Where were these teachers when I was in school” and “She’s hot” and “He just couldn’t keep his big mouth shut could he?” ---
**Author:** ![twickster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ec9cab/32.png) [@twickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twickster)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2010, 1:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/again-hs-teacher-has-relationship-with-student-edited-title/540941/3 "2010-05-27T13:48:04Z")
**Chicagojeff** – please be more specific in thread titles so casual readers will have a clue what the thread is about. Thanks, **twickster** , MPSIMS moderator ---
**Author:** ![Justin\_Bailey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/justin_bailey/32/8792_2.png) [@Justin\_Bailey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Justin_Bailey)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2010, 1:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/again-hs-teacher-has-relationship-with-student-edited-title/540941/4 "2010-05-27T13:51:00Z")
> [@EvilTOJ](#): > > In before “Where were these teachers when I was in school” and “She’s hot” and “He just couldn’t keep his big mouth shut could he?” While these kinds of things come up all the time, the “kid” in this situation is 17. He likely knew exactly what was happening and considered himself lucky. Notice how he reported directly after she failed him for not wanting to knock her up. ---
**Author:** ![Chessic\_Sense](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/7c8e57/32.png) [@Chessic\_Sense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chessic_Sense)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2010, 1:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/again-hs-teacher-has-relationship-with-student-edited-title/540941/5 "2010-05-27T13:52:10Z")
> [@Chicagojeff](#): > > Hall, elected by her colleagues as Shiloh’s Teacher of the Year, could not be reached for comment Wednesday. Gee, I wonder how she convinced people to vote for her. Hmm… …ers ---
**Author:** ![Fuzzy\_Dunlop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/848f3c/32.png) [@Fuzzy\_Dunlop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fuzzy_Dunlop)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2010, 2:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/again-hs-teacher-has-relationship-with-student-edited-title/540941/6 "2010-05-27T14:01:56Z")
> [@Justin\_Bailey](#): > > While these kinds of things come up all the time, the “kid” in this situation is 17. He likely knew exactly what was happening and considered himself lucky. Notice how he reported directly after she failed him for not wanting to knock her up. What are we supposed to notice about that? ---
**Author:** ![Justin\_Bailey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/justin_bailey/32/8792_2.png) [@Justin\_Bailey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Justin_Bailey)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2010, 2:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/again-hs-teacher-has-relationship-with-student-edited-title/540941/7 "2010-05-27T14:05:06Z")
> [@Fuzzy\_Dunlop](#): > > What are we supposed to notice about that? That he’s perfectly OK with being screwed by this teacher, but not OK with being screwed over by this teacher. ---
**Author:** ![Dangerosa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/22d042/32.png) [@Dangerosa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dangerosa)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2010, 2:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/again-hs-teacher-has-relationship-with-student-edited-title/540941/8 "2010-05-27T14:13:27Z")
> [@Justin\_Bailey](#): > > That he’s perfectly OK with being screwed by this teacher, but not OK with being screwed over by this teacher. Which is often the case in sexual harassment and abuse of power situations. And why this is so terribly wrong - and would be wrong if he were a 24 year old graduate student and she were his adviser. You just don’t do this. Because even if you are completely on the up and up, you are going to be wrong if your subordinate doesn’t like his A-. ---
**Author:** ![Justin\_Bailey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/justin_bailey/32/8792_2.png) [@Justin\_Bailey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Justin_Bailey)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2010, 2:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/again-hs-teacher-has-relationship-with-student-edited-title/540941/9 "2010-05-27T14:20:17Z")
> [@Dangerosa](#): > > Which is often the case in sexual harassment and abuse of power situations. And why this is so terribly wrong - and would be wrong if he were a 24 year old graduate student and she were his adviser. You just don’t do this. Because even if you are completely on the up and up, you are going to be wrong if your subordinate doesn’t like his A-. I didn’t say it wasn’t unethical, I just think the article identifying him as a “victim of a sexual crime” is a little :dubious: ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2010, 2:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/again-hs-teacher-has-relationship-with-student-edited-title/540941/10 "2010-05-27T14:52:08Z")
You seem to assume that because teacher/student sexual relationships are reported in the news more often that they are more common. I don’t think that’s true. (Actually, I don’t even know for sure that they are reported on more often. I can’t check newspapers files for older news stories about this.) I suspect that it’s always gone on, but it just didn’t make the news as much. It was hushed up or maybe just ignored. I remember forty years ago a sexual relationship happening between a male student and a female teacher in my high school. The teacher was fired, but nothing else happened. The teacher was lousy anyway and was probably going to get fired at the end of the year anyway. Does anyone know of any reliable studies of the frequency of teacher/student sexual relationships over the past few decades or so? ---
**Author:** ![DiosaBellissima](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a8b319/32.png) [@DiosaBellissima](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DiosaBellissima)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2010, 5:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/again-hs-teacher-has-relationship-with-student-edited-title/540941/11 "2010-05-27T17:23:53Z")
I don’t get this at all. I work with high school students now and have since I was 20 years old (meaning the older ones were just barely 2-3 years younger than me). Even then, even the oldest of kids seemed like babies. Seriously- the way the kids act, especially the boys, just screamed LITTLE KID to me. I remember when I first started working there, there was a huge brouhaha on the news over a teacher having a sexual relationship with a kid. This just blew my mind- there isn’t a damn thing attractive about these kids- even the traditionally “hot” ones, because they act like . … well, high school students. ---
**Author:** ![Alice\_The\_Goon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ed8c4c/32.png) [@Alice\_The\_Goon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alice_The_Goon)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2010, 5:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/again-hs-teacher-has-relationship-with-student-edited-title/540941/12 "2010-05-27T17:57:06Z")
Oh, but those teenage boys, with their acne and smelliness… mmmm. That’s hot. Where’s that pukey smiley we’ve been asking for? ---
**Author:** ![ShibbOleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/848f3c/32.png) [@ShibbOleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ShibbOleth)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2010, 6:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/again-hs-teacher-has-relationship-with-student-edited-title/540941/13 "2010-05-27T18:14:12Z")
> [@Justin\_Bailey](#): > > While these kinds of things come up all the time, the “kid” in this situation is 17. He likely knew exactly what was happening and considered himself lucky. Notice how he reported directly after she failed him for not wanting to knock her up. And when something happens between a Doper’s daughter and a slightly older male, it’s heinous, but anything between a teen boy and an older teacher is okay. At least that seems to be the consensus here. ---
**Author:** ![Markxxx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5daacb/32.png) [@Markxxx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Markxxx)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2010, 6:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/again-hs-teacher-has-relationship-with-student-edited-title/540941/14 "2010-05-27T18:45:02Z")
> [@DiosaBellissima](#): > > I don’t get this at all. I work with high school students now and have since I was 20 years old (meaning the older ones were just barely 2-3 years younger than me). Even then, even the oldest of kids seemed like babies. You just made your point. Exactly, they are stupid and don’t know better so the adult can control them. I think it’s somewhat funny that the student didn’t report it UNTILL he got a failing grade. As if she sexually harassed him but gave him an “A” it would’ve been OK? 😕 ---
**Author:** ![Dangerosa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/22d042/32.png) [@Dangerosa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dangerosa)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2010, 7:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/again-hs-teacher-has-relationship-with-student-edited-title/540941/15 "2010-05-27T19:46:00Z")
> [@Justin\_Bailey](#): > > I didn’t say it wasn’t unethical, I just think the article identifying him as a “victim of a sexual crime” is a little :dubious: Except he was the victim of a sexual crime - assuming his allegations are true. Ignoring the “he’s a minor” part - he was blackmailed into exchanging sex (and a baby!) for grades. He may have entered into the initial relationship voluntarily, but at least eventually, this became quid pro quo sexual harassment. ---
**Author:** ![Justin\_Bailey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/justin_bailey/32/8792_2.png) [@Justin\_Bailey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Justin_Bailey)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2010, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/again-hs-teacher-has-relationship-with-student-edited-title/540941/16 "2010-05-27T19:51:54Z")
> [@Dangerosa](#): > > Except he was the victim of a sexual crime - assuming his allegations are true. Ignoring the “he’s a minor” part - he was blackmailed into exchanging sex (and a baby!) for grades. He may have entered into the initial relationship voluntarily, but at least eventually, this became quid pro quo sexual harassment. Which he refused and turned her in for. Also, he’s not a minor, the age of consent in Georgia is 16. This is solely an ethical question. ---
**Author:** ![Dangerosa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/22d042/32.png) [@Dangerosa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dangerosa)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2010, 8:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/again-hs-teacher-has-relationship-with-student-edited-title/540941/17 "2010-05-27T20:42:05Z")
> [@Justin\_Bailey](#): > > Which he refused and turned her in for. Also, he’s not a minor, the age of consent in Georgia is 16. > > This is solely an ethical question. Sexual harassment is illegal. This isn’t an ethical question. ---
**Author:** ![Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/46a35a/32.png) [@Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_T-Bonham.net)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2010, 7:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/again-hs-teacher-has-relationship-with-student-edited-title/540941/18 "2010-05-28T07:20:14Z")
Again??? Yes, of course. We have records of this since at least Aristotle, around 2500 years ago. So it’s not likely to stop anytime soon. Only difference is that at some times in history it’s considered heinous & illegal, and other times considered it a normal teaching technique. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Second\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bbe5ce/32.png) [@The\_Second\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Second_Stone)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2010, 7:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/again-hs-teacher-has-relationship-with-student-edited-title/540941/19 "2010-05-28T07:41:29Z")
> [@Dangerosa](#): > > Sexual harassment is illegal. This isn’t an ethical question. It is a civil complaint, and illegal in that context usually means criminal. Depending on the law, it may not be criminal, but may give rise to a civil action. ---
**Author:** ![AboutAsWeirdAsYouCanGet](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/22d042/32.png) [@AboutAsWeirdAsYouCanGet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AboutAsWeirdAsYouCanGet)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2010, 7:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/again-hs-teacher-has-relationship-with-student-edited-title/540941/20 "2010-05-28T07:50:16Z")
> [@](#): > > I don’t get this at all. I work with high school students now and have since I was 20 years old (meaning the older ones were just barely 2-3 years younger than me). Even then, even the oldest of kids seemed like babies. Seriously- the way the kids act, especially the boys, just screamed LITTLE KID to me. > > I remember when I first started working there, there was a huge brouhaha on the news over a teacher having a sexual relationship with a kid. This just blew my mind- there isn’t a damn thing attractive about these kids- even the traditionally “hot” ones, because they act like . .. well, high school students. RIGHT ON!!! Teens are still very much kids emotionally. Heck, I gotta say I’ve changed even since I was in my early twenties. On the other hand…doesn’t it seem like cases like these require a “perfect storm” of the “perfect” circumstances to happen? Like a girl or guy with really crappy self esteem being predated on by self centered teachers who for some reason feel the need to prey on the naitivite of little kids? Like, it’s prolly VERY rare that a kid with good self esteem and who’s had exposure to healthy realtionships would fall for the manipulations of a teacher. I do have to say…anyone else notice that the boy is a football player? I love that…I find it VERY ironic, as it seems like a Jock type is usually the kind who is taking advantage of his status and playing sex games with the brainless cheerleaders or scoring a few points with a 14 year old freshman. Now the tables are turned, and HE’s the “victim”…almost like an Onion headline. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/again-hs-teacher-has-relationship-with-student-edited-title/540941.md?page=2)