The news vans were out in force yesterday afternoon at Brea-Olinda High School, in the parking lot during the graduation ceremony for the city’s nearby junior high. According to my (graduating) daughter, the students didn’t know why. It wasn’t long until we all found out. Math teacher Michelle Johnson had been arrested on the charge of having sex with a student (or, said some reports, two.)
That put a damper on the day. Probably on the summer, too. And next year. It will be a topic of discussion.
Responses to the arrest of Michelle Johnson for alleged sex with her high school students range from anger to (reviewing the OC Weekly’s comments) apparent glee that some high school boys got laid. As for me, I’m mostly just sad about it.
1. Turning Down Sex with Attractive Partners
One of the hardest things for adults in positions of power to learn is how to turn down the prospect of sex with those who have less power — students, direct supervisees, parishioners, classified workers, interns, even lobbyists. Adults do have to learn this, though — and more simply than learning it they have to remember, every time a chance for such sex arises, that it may not only be the ethical thing to do, but in some cases it’s the law. But as the flesh is weak — and as late adolescents maybe sexually mature and aware –the best response to news that an adult with power had sex with willing partner seems to be neither glee nor revulsion, but humility and understanding. If you personally can’t say “there but for the grace of God go I” at this sort of story, plenty of people you know can. Most, hopefully, never acted on it, rather than just didn’t get caught.
I was a college and university professor for about a decade; I was a university teaching assistant for a few years before that. It was no secret that some professors were always on the prowl for willing partners of either gender (or both) and it was no secret that some students were interested in sex either for reasons of career advancement or … because they were horny, and a fling with a professor was some sort of prize, especially as compared to the either less available or less appetizing choices among one’s peers. (Or maybe it was just variety, notch-carving, or the gathering of a good story to tell later about one’s wild youth.)
I was lucky in that my teaching career coincided almost precisely with the years of my first marriage, which boosted my immunity to cheating. (I also knew that my then-wife, who was also entering academia, would have men flinging themselves at her continually, so maintaining fidelity was a smart choice in terms of reciprocity. Why yes, I did study evolutionary biology in school, why do you ask?) For all that, though, if one were to roll the dice of my teaching career a 100 times I don’t know in how many of them I would have avoided sex with students — perhaps fewer than I’d like to imagine. (I also had the benefit of being pudgy and balding, so I was able to avoid some of the firehose of youthful hormonal attention to which some of my colleagues were exposed. But, for men, having breasts pressed up against your shoulder by young women who want a better grade is part of academia — and if that makes you want to become an academic, get a grip.)
At least, if I had strayed, I was teaching college. My students were legal adults. Imagine how difficult it can be for people teaching high school, where not only one’s job is continually on the line, but one’s freedom. And I don’t say that to sympathize with those who do have sex with their students, but merely to sympathize with their possibly having to put a lot of effort into resisting temptation. It is, though part of the job to do so.
So that’s one reason that I get no prurient excitement from the arrest of Michelle Lynn Johnson this past week for having sex with a student or two at Brea-Olinda High School. Another reason is that she was my daughter’s AP Statistics teacher. (Maybe eventually she will be one again — “innocent until proven guilty” and all that.) So I got a bit of an insider perspective, once I broke the news to her last night. The verdict: my daughter thought that she was a good teacher — but she was “close to her students.” Uh-oh.
2. The War on Friendliness
I’ll tell you one thing that does seriously bother me about this news (aside from its illegality, which I respect.) It’s not so much the “loss of innocence” among 16- or 17-year-old boys, who as I recall are generally out to lose at least some aspects their innocence as quickly and often and as possible with as many partners as are willing. (Or perhaps I’m projecting from my own adolescence.) It’s how this sort of event brings what may well be wholesome interactions between adults and their charges under suspicion.
Michelle Johnson, I’m told, was very friendly with her students — and, from my daughter’s perspective, especially with her male students. (She was an advanced math teacher; her students probably skewed male.) She was fine with her female students as well, according to my daughter, but it was different. That difference, I’m guessing, involved a cloud of young male hormones. And when I say “friendly,” of course, I mean — friendly. Cordial. Bantering. The sorts of things that a good teacher will often do — even innocently.
A petite and attractive blonde, from her mid-30s to mid-40s at Brea-Olinda, Johnson would apparently sometimes go hiking with her students. If you’re picturing her going out every weekend to have sex al fresco with a different boy, you’re probably highly mistaken. (I wasn’t there so I can’t say for sure; it just seems like that would be unnecessarily dangerous.) She liked hiking; she liked the company of young male students, in whom the best is often brought out by cordial and supportive adult companionship. One can talk differently to an adult than to a peer. Nine out of ten, 99 out of 100, social interactions with young male students may have been entirely G-rated — (or, given innocence until guilt proven, even 10 and 100 of them.)
And, that’s generally good. Having these social interactions with adults is an important part of adolescent socialization. One just doesn’t want it to end up as victimization — even if the adolescents happened to be willing victims. A teacher who will take students out hiking on his or her own time, if it’s not a way to wangle sex out of them and if they can resist offers of sex, is doing something great. It is not the sort of thing that I’d want to see discouraged out of the concern that it might lead to sex — because lots of things might lead to sex if one or both parties are sufficiently intent on it. (At least hiking gives you fresh air.)
What bothers me about this case is in part that it may bring so much good and wholesome student-teacher interaction into question. This is, of course, sort of stupid. Teachers can seduce students just as well from a position of glowering dominance as from a position of friendly and sociable egalitarianism. But the latter — the part that strikes me, frankly, as less twisted than a stern “I want to see you in my office” et alia — is probably what is more likely to strike people as dangerous in the wake of this news. My best relationships with high school teachers — yes, all of them non-sexual, thanks for asking — were congenial ones, where I was able to hoist myself up to peer for a few moments over the transom of adulthood and get a sense of what positive adult relationships would bring. I hate the idea of that being lost — and I don’t think that its loss would actually make my children much less vulnerable to sexual predation.
3. Anonymous Commenters for Vicarious Thrills
For other disturbing reactions, let’s head over to the OC Weekly. Note that this is one time that I don’t blame the Weekly for what is said on their site: it’s not (entirely) their fault that they have a largely immature male audience. The sole female commenter, judging by names and avatar pictures, said: “What is wrong with these women??” After that … yaaaaaagggghhhhh! Judge for yourself.
One guy wanted to express his cultural knowledge in three short comments:
– i’m hot for teacher
– Reminds me of the movie the graduate , Mrs Robinson
– I thought only men we’re [sic] pedophiles?
Well, that’s nice. Other people were just celebratory:
– You go girl!!
– Nice……
– what’s wrong with that!?
– i like the florida teacher better.. she was hot.
– Hope teacher’s like this are still around when my boy turns 14. Save me the trouble of taking him down to TJ.
– … Why the hell didn’t any hot teachers fuck me in high school huh? Wtf?
– We need to find the male student immediately… and give him his luckiest boy in the world award.
– Ah, the things we learn in school.
– Let’s be perfectly honest. Ninety percent of adult guys envy these high school boys. And, the 10% who (say they) don’t are either gay, ill, or lying.
– She’s trying for Teacher of the Year, 2013.
Note: she actually was Teacher of the Year in 2009. As I said, she apparently did a good job of teaching.
– I bet the father thought there was somethin goin on after his boy went from getting “F’s” to strait “A’s” !! haha !
Had this been a female student with a male teacher, you’d probably get the same joke but not the “haha.”
Then, finally, we have one anonymous defender …
– this woman was a great person and a great teacher. i still dont believe that the allegations are true as she is still one of the greatest teachers i will have ever encountered in my whole academic career.
… and one anonymous attacker:
– In her 2012 yearbook photo she says:
“If I had super powers, I’d go back in line and re-live my Twenties!”.
This is a women who hangs at Panera with her students, tweets jokes and likes the boys in her class to call her Mom. FREEPER: Female Creeper.
I don’t know if any of that was true. The “Mom” thing, if true, would need to be explained. Tweeting jokes, hanging at Panera — are these really going to be considered problems? As for touting how great the decade of the Twenties is — is that really a bad thing to say for people on the verge of entering it?
4. The double-standard
Then there’s the elephant in the room — the double-standard:
– I totally agree our attitude to a male teacher with a female student is different, but we seem to have so many of these here, and I think the language is usually similar.
Is this situation, if true, somehow less bad than the situation when a male teacher has sex with a female student? (I’m going to restrict myself to examples of heterosexual relations here to simplify things.) Legally, I don’t think that there is or ought to be a difference. In terms of my subjective sense of things: absolutely. It’s not that this is OK or that it’s harmless, but it isdifferent. First, of course, is the matter of the threat of pregnancy. But it goes beyond that. The fact is that the two kinds of transgressions occur in a different social context, in which young men (and I’m going to draw that line where many states do, at 16+) are not nearly so stigmatized as young women.
Try to imagine a situation where a young woman had had sex with a 45 year old male teacher. Do you really expect that you’d see the sorts of celebratory comments that you find above? I think that you’d find lots of “slut,” “bitch,” and “ho” in those comments — and not a lot of envy at their “luck,” not a lot of “attagirl!”
Whatever your reaction, whether she’s guilty or innocent, I doubt that Monica Michelle Johnson is going to be around OC to hear it for long. The case may or may not be resolved in her favor, but it’s likely that the scarlet letter branding her will never be gone so long as she’s in Orange County.
Parents believe that their kids will be relatively safe when they drop them off at school (or maybe it was just me believing that) Anyone in a position of power who abuses it by any sexual act should be held accountable to the fullest extent of the law. I don’t care if the student is 17. He/she is still the student and the adult is supposed to know better. Who cares about hormones? We also have self control and don’t act on all our impulses. I don’t understand this type of behavior whether its a teacher, clergy, cop, or whomever… Our kids grow up fast enough without some adult polluting them.
What about if they’re a student is 18?
In Nevada (and 28 other states, plus DC) the age of consent is 16. Would you view your 17 your old student differently in that case?
What about in college? You think that it should be illegal?
My feeling is: keep it out of high school altogether … but that’s not an age-based (or even age-of-consent-based) standard.
Its still inappropriate..no matter how old the student. The teacher was hired to teach…not look for dates.
Wait – are we talking about what’s “inappropriate” or what deserves years in jail? I guess I should read Greg’s story before I comment any more…
I concede that any such relationship was inappropriate. Punishment? Surely. Termination? Probably. Jail? Possibly. Extreme steps taken to make sure that nothing of this sort could ever happen again? That natural bureaucratic response, if it happens, will be a real shame.
I was talking to Inge. She’s suddenly arguing that it’s “inappropriate” which I don’t think anyone was denying. Let’s eschew strawmen on this blog.
I accept that it’s “inappropriate.” That means that you’re justified in frowning at it. But, at least in college (and in many other professions) it is generally not a basis for discipline, termination, or prison — unless one is a troublemaker, in which case it can be a convenient excuse for such.
I don’t really get your point at the end. No employees (other than I suppose maybe prostitutes, lobbyists, and pharmaceutical representatives) are ever “hired to look for dates.”
.. in case one is a troublemaker, or a Republican ….
You’re arguing that only Republicans are punished for sexual involvement with students? Really?
You’re like the Venus Fly-Trap of political discussion. One little tickle of any tendril and you snap shut.
My experience of academia is that loudly “we’re being oppressed!” conservatives actually got more slack. Trustees are often from the business world: they tend to feel awfully entitled and are not shy about throwing around their weight. (Remember when Erwin Chemerinsky got fired before he started his job at UCI law? That wasn’t the work of liberals. Getting him rehired, though, was.)
and just where were these teachers when i was in high school
This particular one was probably an infant, right?
As a parent….I am always disturbed when I hear about these stories. Kids are socially and emotionally unprepared to have a sexual relationship with any adult…particularly one that is entrusted with the education and socialization of them. It is disturbing that an adult teacher would violate a student/teacher relationship for their own gratification for any reason…either emotionally or physically..
This is particularly disturbing in this case…as illustrated by this event of a minor being involved with an adult……. Any “professional” relationship ( and yes, a student-teacher relationship is and should be a “professional” relationship) should be honored with the boundaries that define such relationships. An adult that violates this…in my opinion, should be evaluated and prosecuted according to the crime, the violation of the law and the harm done to the minor person (or other adult person for that matter).
I know the impact that this may have on a child….my child was exposed along with another child …in second grade to the actions of a deviant…who tried to entice the two little girls into his car and he exposed himself to them. They were smart enough to run back to school and report this to a teacher’s aide…..my daughter still talks about this today. It was both frightening, terrifying and bewildering to both of the girls. Actual physical violation…..I am sure could be orders of magnitude worse.
Adults need to behave like adults and put their charges interests first…not their own desires.
I think that there’s a huge difference between a 7-year-old girl and a 17-year-old boy — especially if the latter is trying to have sex as soon as possible (which my sense is many of them still are.) I am not and would not be trying to minimize the evil of the former — but why should our desire to protect 7-year-olds of both genders inform our opinions about a 17-year-old boy who is interested in having sex? (Note: I don’t know the ages of this boy or boys.) In any event, I’m struck by how far apart your reaction is from those of the commenters who are giving “attaboy!” sorts of responses.
You seem to be defining relationships between professors and their (adult) students as also morally (and perhaps legally) wrong. All I can say is that I think that even the moral wrongness of someone who isn’t a current student is controversial.
“Adults need to behave like adults and put their charges interests first…” — mostly a sentiment honored in the breach, wouldn’t you say? Is pretending that we hold to these standards worth putting this women in prison, for potentially many years, for rape?
Greg…not sure if you imply Carole is the one *pretending* I don’t understand what you mean by that. I don’t care if the perp was male or female, she chose to break the law and must face the consequences. Its the same if she were clergy or a physician or dentist. She knew what she was doing. She is the adult.
Thanks Inge……that was my point…she broke the law…no matter if it was with a 17 year boy or a 7 year old girl…she broke the law….
Geez Carole, you sound like the people who wanns lock up all the illegal immigrants or pot smokers. There are laws against everything from jaywalking to genocide.
“No matter”?
I’ve been a 17 year old boy and I’ve been the step-father of a 7-year-old girl. Yes, it matters a great deal. Not all violations of the law are equal, by any means. California’s extremely harsh consent laws, under which two 17-year-olds engaged in oral sex are both committing misdemeanors, are a complete joke — one made tolerable only because they are so routinely overlooked (unless it’s in the interests of the government, in a particular case, to choose not to overlook them.)
If it’s because the students were (presumably — and I don’t even know this to be so) under 18, then yes she broke the law. It’s a law that I think should be enforced in the school setting. Generally, given that California is in the substantial minority by setting the age of consent over 17 (the majority rule in the U.S. is 16), this law seems to be taken about as seriously as the law against speeding — which is, I think, fair to acknowledge.
Do you think that there is a law against a clergy member, physician, or dentist having sex with an adult patient? Ethical rules, yes. Requirement of consent? Absolutely. A law? Not to my knowledge.
My argument in this piece is not that she shouldn’t face sanctions if the story is true. It’s primarily that we’re completely hypocritical about these issues (especially where adolescent boys are concerned) and that what we stand to lose in clamping down on even non-sexual social relationships between teachers and students (for fear that they could lead to something more) is a significant loss of some major benefits provided by good, interested, law-abiding teachers to their students — and I’ll be very sad to see that happen, if it does. To me, it’s the worst likely consequence of this tragedy because so much good socialization of children would be erased.
Teachers are not the same as teenage boys and girls having sex. Teachers are in a position of authority. Vern, this woman broke the law and she knew what she was doing was wrong or was she just “turned on” by it? Vern…I wasn’t suddenly arguing anything. Sex between a teacher and student is wrong. The law states sex between someone over the age of 18 and someone 17 or younger is illegal. Sorry you don’t agree with that law. Do you have kids?
I disagree with kids getting charged with sex crimes for sexting. I disagree with the law that was passed in Calif…I don’t remember the name…Greg was against it to…It had to do with sex trafficking… that law went to far…but in this case the teacher broke the law and whatever a jury decides is her fate…then she has to take responsibility for her actions.
*The definition of pedophiles is created by society. In Africa, six year old girls are married to 40 year old men and consumate their marriage after their first period at whatever age. Mala Mundo was a great old 60’s movie….where one 68 year old white man was married to 50 Fijian Islander ladies of various ages.
This society has chosen to make pedophiles anyone having sex or inappropriate physical contact with anyone under the legal age of 18. You can make excuses, rationalize or otherwise believe what you want on the issue. That however does not change the law, or the voice of any judge and jury assembled when those laws are breeched. Rightly so……
We suppose if you believe this teacher did nothing wrong….you should move to a society that believes the same way. Sadly, Honor Killings based upon mascara and eye shadow useable by girls living at home with their parents…..should never be condoned in a Western Society setting. We can argue all we want about African women being being disfigured in certain societies for whatever supposed cultural reasons. Not correct actions here in the USA in our opinion. If you believe Teachers should be able to have sex with their students….try to sell that to the local School Board or try to pass a State Initiative in that regard. Probably, not going to find much support on that – from parents of any stripe.
Who is saying that the teacher, if the allegations are true, did no wrong?
Note that we can find a “society” where sex at 16 is acceptable across the Nevada border — and that includes the majority of the rest of states in the U.S. (We Californians are ourselves also such a “society” in practice, regardless of our laws.) The more inherent problem in this case is not the too-rapid “coming of age,” but the betrayal of trust in a power relationship — something that, to various degrees, remains a problem with 19-, 29-, 39-, 49-, and 59-year-olds (and beyond.)
I can’t remember the last time I wrote something where people were less likely to respond to the story itself than to a conveniently easier-to-reject version of what they think that it might have said.
*Dr. Greg, we have alot of anecdotal evidence and stories about Teacher/Boy Love Abuse. We have lots of Teacher/Girl Love Abuse as well. These cases are always salacious and create some very vivid images which may or may not be correct. That one Mom that took on the whole field hockey team comes to mind. All in all, the incest victim numbers in this country are truly astounding. The last we heard 1 in 5 children in America are victims of incest. We seldom here of the results of those prosecutions and dark dank details which make Mr. Castro seem like a Boy Scout. We contend that the actual chronological age doesn’t mean much…and that is why so many laws are written for each segment of society. You might recall the Sue Lyon and James Mason movie….”Lolita”. She was 13 to start her years of manipulation and was probably a 42 year old mentally. Just a movie? Not so, children watch bad moms have sex with a variety of partners from toddlers through teenage years. Many times those girls are passed around to Mom’s boyfriends, 2nd or 3rd husbands….just to keep the guys.
This Teacher, whether a victim herself or not…..must pay the penalty..even
if the boy was not 14…but 17 years and 364 days old. The message must be sent….that when our children are put at risk and abused, used or convinced they are doing “the love thing”……and are caught – the society cannot condone that conduct either with a light sentence or turning their backs to it. Some mom’s having their child abused have become vigilantes and taken the law into their own hands. Because of this……”they” are ones doing the jail time….not the initial abuser.
Hmm, good idea author! I like how she changed her name to Monica at the end of your article! Anonymity!
Thanks for catching the error; I’ve fixed it.
@ Greg Diamond:
thank you for your views on this topic.
paco
“Paco”,
What are your views on this topic? I appreciate opine on sex abuse topics. It would be interesting and informative to hear your thoughts.
Don’t you have a connection to St. Angela’s. Didn’t you participate in the recent Confirmation celebration? I thought you were there, but the crowd was too great?