What do you expect, in a country where they still show the little league world series right on tv for anyone to see.
Have they no shame?
(but yeah, this guy does sound bad)
What’s he teaching them? Bird watching?
If the OP is really concerned, what better time for a calm, rational class on what to do in the case of stranger danger? I recommend this video.
(Sadly, for the girls at least it’s probably going to get worse than watching from a car in a year or two. And by then some people will assume they are somewhat complicit.)
There’s a kids’ baseball/softball field about six blocks from my house, and if there happens to be a game on when i’m walking by, i’ll often stop for a few innings to watch the action. Sometimes it’s boys’ baseball, sometimes it’s girls’ softball.
I’m sure the day will come when some “All unaccompanied men within 200 feet of children are pedophiles” asshole will ask me what i’m doing watching the kids, or call the cops on me.
If you are concerned do call your local police and give them the information. It isn’t illegal to watch the playing fields from your car, so nothing bad will come of it if these people are perfectly innocent. But just by chance if one of them is known to police, this piece of intelligence could be a big help, especially in the case of registered sex offenders.
It could well be an estranged parent but that in itself could be a concern (I will fully admit to being paranoid here, because of my line of work). It is not uncommon for parents not to be allowed near their children due to abuse or domestic violence. Most child abductions are carried out by an estranged parent. However I assume if any of your students were particularly at risk the teachers would be aware of who to look out for and have copies of court orders and so on.
mhendo - you don’t sound creepy at all. It’s one thing to pause at a game to watch for a minute, another to stop your car and sit in it, still running, until you see security and then disappearing. It also sounds like this is not a game, just a PE lesson.
It all suddenly makes sense. Earlier this summer I was at the public pool, stretched out on my towel and watching some kids playing in the shallow end. It was heart warming and I got a bit misty thinking about how I’ll probably never have kids of my own. After about ten minutes, a parent came over and took two of the kids away, telling them that they had to leave now. I thought nothing of it. But then I noticed that they didn’t actually leave, they just moved over to the far end of the shallow area.
Now it’s all clear that it was probably a proactive move away from a probable pedophile. I’m pretty sure I wasn’t drooling or playing with myself. I guess amateur profiling has become something of a necessary evil.
Anyway, I am trying to find out what the guy in the OP actually did wrong. Sure the cat-calling would be a little creepy depending on what was being said. Maybe the extreme paranoia is somewhat understandable, when the threat has the potential to be so damaging.
That’s fair. Though even if I were a normal non pedophile, I’d probably leave, too, considering today’s climate and how rabidly angry people get about it. Remember that recent story about the man who was yelled at for photographing his own kids at a playground?
Well at my middle school there was an old guy (who I’m certain is a pedo) who went on a bicycle and watched the kids in the playground during recess from the vantage point of a residential area right across a small waterway that is a boundary line of our school. We ought to have stoned him. 
The apartment complex I used to live in had a soccer field right next door. I had a perfect view of it from my third floor balcony.
Even tho’ I never knew what teams were what, it was mildly entertaining to watch them play. (Providing it wasn’t too hot outside)
I’m curious, the OP makes it sound like there are dozens of pedo’s lined up against the fence getting their kicks.
How many guys are we actually talking here?
Also, catcalls? Really? How often does this catcall thing happen? Are you sure this isn’t hyperbole?
Don’t get me wrong, I understand your frustration. I just also hate to see the promotion of this “Pedo-paranoia”. As Freudian Slit mentions that guy who got yelled at for taking pics of his own kid.
Kind of a complicated mess really.
OK, I simply must share this video of a dude getting pwned in exactly the manner you describe.
Now back to the pedo bashing.
Better not look at them through a telescope, or some voyeur will see you through his telescope and report you for being a pervert.
These are sixth graders we’re talking about. Kids who are 11 or 12 years old. It is COMPLETELY UNACCEPTABLE, not just a little creepy depending on what was being said, for people to cat-call kids of that age. Not that I’m in favor of cat-calls, at all. But I started receiving those remarks when I was about that age, and I know that my daughter also received such remarks at least once (I was with her).
Obviously the OP’s school attracts at least some pervs.
I agree it’s completely unacceptable.
What I’m asking; is this a one time thing from a single stranger or are there lots of guys doing this? If there are indeed lots of guys doing this, color me naive. That’s freak’n scary.
Stories like this make me wish Dexter really existed. These guys need to eat a bullet.
I prefer to believe that many of these situations are exaggerated or misinterpreted, rather than accept that there are really that many sick fucks out there champing at the bit to land a piece of pre-teen tail.
It can’t possibly be true, can it? Such a thin social membrane protecting us good folk from a kiddie-diddling free-for-all?
Paedogeddon.
This wouldn’t surprise me since it’s happened to me already.
I’ll dig for cites later, but for the time being, suffice it to say that pedophilia is an extremely common mental disorder. Some authorities place its prevalence at 4% of the entire general adult population. It occurs in women too, so the most prudent course of action would be to carry a concealed weapon at all times and immediately shoot anybody who looks at any minor for any reason, at any time. Can’t be too careful out there.
I will say that part of my Pit-level anger over this is, at first, I thought “Naw, can’t be anything.” It was the progression of…wait…really? :eek: Oh no he’s NOT! that got me peeved.
You know, last week while we were outside, we got a drive-by “YowwwOOOOOOWWW!” I thought it was 1) for me/another female teacher, or 2) some punk doing the “HA HA! You’re in school and I’m NOT!” thing. A variation of “Ow baby!” never occurred to me. Not at all. I still lean toward it being one of those two more innocent (if annoying) things, just FTR. Then again, maybe I’m still naive. I shall cling to that shred of naivete at least.
Yesterday, my train of thought went like this:
- Hmm. There’s a strange car sitting there. Why is it there? Is it just parked, or could someone actually be watching?
- I’ll walk over, see if it’s empty.
- Hmm, someone’s in there and the car is running.
- I’ll walk slowly by the car. Seeing an adult between the car and the fence ought to scare off creepy people.
- He’s not moving. He’s watching. Very closely and carefully. He’s twisted around TO watch. WTF? Could it be a parent…well, maybe, but we’re 2 hours from dismissal. This feels off.
- I’ll slowly and deliberately go to the back of his car, and slowly and deliberately pause at the license plate. He’ll get the message. Wow. He’s still not moving–and he’s still watching. And he’s watching out and away from me–at the kids. Um…does this happen? Really? Where’d Security Guy go? I want to check with him on this. This is starting to have a real ICK feel to it.
It wasn’t that I just looked at a stopped car and thought, “OMG! Stopped car! A pedophile!”
I spoke with the PE teacher after, asking if this sort of thing happens and what they do about it. She said it happens “All the time,” she said. “Same car? A burgundy Buick?” She shook her head–not sure if it was shaking in disgust, or a no, then added “some trucks go by will whistle and catcall.” What trucks, I don’t know; what she defines as “catcall,” I don’t know; how often “all the time” actually is, I don’t know. She then added, “Normally, all we have to do is this,” and she mimed opening her Nextel. Then we had to separate and attend to our classes.
I will say that I’m calling school police Monday for their input (school police=a branch of the local police department specifically assigned to the schools). I don’t want to just chase these guys away, I want them DEALT with if they’re actually doing something skeevy, and I want to know how they recommend I handle it on my end.
Cat-calling does not necessarily lead to sexual intercourse.
I wouldn’t say that cat-calls (especially to pre-teens) are common, but they’re not nearly as rare as they should be. I know that my female friends and I all experienced it. I know that my daughter experienced it. It wasn’t constant, but it occurred. And it’s rather hard to exaggerate or misinterpret it when some male, twenty years your senior, comes up to your 12 or 13 year old self and says “Let’s go to my place and make out.” That, even to my very naive preteen self, was a sexual invitation.
I would also prefer to believe that this doesn’t happen. However, what I prefer to believe and reality are two different things.
I am always amazed that the fine upstanding non-pedo guys of the world always seem much angrier at people who suspect someone of pedophilia than, you know, actual kiddie-raping perverts. Were I a man, I’d be pissed off at those sick fucks who make people suspicious of everyone, not at understandably wary parents hoping to protect their children.