Teacher student sex
A worthwhile article:
By Selwyn Duke
New American, 2018-05-17
An overview column from Townhall.com:
by Lee Culpepper
Townhall.com, 2015-04-15
A CBS News summary of 49 (as of 2016-01-17) “Notorious teacher sex scandals”,
all apparently involving female teachers having sex with male students:
“Notorious teacher sex scandals”.
E.g., Kacy Wilson.
And two overview articles:
U.S. cracks down on female teachers who sexually abuse students
by Barbara Goldberg
Reuters.com, 2015-04-21
(Reuters) -
A "Saturday Night Live" skit about
a male student having sex with his female high school teacher
painted the relationship as every teen boy's dream,
but drew a firestorm of criticism on social media.
The reaction to the comedy sketch
reflected a growing view among law enforcement and victims' advocacy groups
that it is no laughing matter when a woman educator preys on her male students.
In U.S. schools last year,
almost 800 school employees were prosecuted for sexual assault,
nearly a third of them women.
The proportion of women facing charges seems to be higher than in years past,
when female teachers often got a pass, said Terry Abbott,\
a former chief of staff at the U.S. Department of Education, who tracked the cases.
This year's numbers are already slightly ahead of last year
with 26 cases of female school employees accused of inappropriate relationships with male students in January
compared to 19 cases the previous January.
Female educators who sexually abuse their students are facing tougher prosecution in part because there are more women police officers.
There is also a greater awareness among prosecutors, judges and the general public
that students who are victimized by an authority figure, regardless of gender,
experience trauma with life-long consequences.
[That is a non sequitor.
People "who are victimized" are, by definition, victims.
But it leaves totally open the question of just why a teenage boy who has a sexual hookup with a teacher
is automatically a victim.
I totally reject that notion.
I was once a teenage boy.
I did not have sex with any of my teachers, never even close, never really thought about it,
but in my estimation,
if that had happened,
the only negative effect on me would have been
a feeling of guilt on my part,
that I had committed a sin.
This would have been the result of my religious upbringing.
But otherwise, I would just have viewed it as a learning experience:
"Oh, so that's what sex is like.
Now I know.
I know adults engage in sex, now I know what they experience."
Also, if the older woman was skillful,
she would have taught me the best ways a man could sexually please women.
I think that is a useful life skill,
something that is certainly not part of my, at least, makeup.
So, yea, I think there can be positive results of teenage boy/older woman sex.
That is not to deny that an older woman in a position of authority can abuse her authority and make the relationship an abusive one,
it is only to say that such sexual relations are not automatically abusive,
at least in my opinion.]
"Law enforcement is increasingly feminized,
and women are much less prone to the old attitude:
'Oh, this is just some kid who got lucky,'"
said David Finkelhor, director of the Crimes Against Children Research Center.
"They recognize the issues involved
and they go after women who violate the statutes."
[Now that is very interesting.
So grown men in law enforcement, who by definition have more in common with younger men than women do,
did not see it as necessarily victimization,
but women in law enforcement, who by definition cannot know what it is like to be a young male,
see this as necessarily victimization?
Talk about crazy!
If that isn't crazy, I don't know what is.
But of course, we know our modern women.
They think they know everything.
Just look how those female senators supported allowing open homosexuals in the military.
The Army, with its institutional knowledge of the trust and leadership issues that arise in leading men in the crucible of combat,
had its views rejected as being based on "bigotry",
rather than a clear-eyed view of the problems that adding sexual attraction
to the issued facing leaders would cause.
But what do women care about what is important?]
Depression, low-self esteem and difficulty maintaining future relationships
are among the long-term consequences that male victims face,
according to experts.
[Ha, ha, ha!
Low self-esteem????
Because, say, an attractive female teacher,
e.g., former AP calculus instructor Erica Ginnetti
(note the enthusiastic audible reaction of the audience to the dancing),
sees you as attractive enough to have sex with????
I say, many teenage boys would see having sex with such a woman
as a giant boost to their self-esteem.
Those who argue otherwise are either ignorant, liars, or both.
The only thing they are expert in is
making false claims based on their supposed expertise.
Again, that is not to deny that it is possible for
a female teacher to abuse her authority,
only to assert, most strongly,
that female teacher/male student sex is not necessarily going to
cause the consequences on the male student asserted above.
One really has to wonder why so many "experts"
take such a gloom and doom view towards sex.
Do they really think that both participants in sexual acts
cannot enjoy the acts?
That it cannot be a win/win situation?
There are two valid arguments for prohibiting or criminalizing sexual acts:
Arguments based on religion and morality, and,
arguments based on harm to the larger society.
But the argument that the young male adult involved
is necessarily "victimized"?
Again, I reject that argument.]
Those problems are sometimes compounded by confusion and guilt
over whether they are actually victims
since their adolescent bodies involuntarily respond to physical contact.
'SEISMIC SHIFTS'
Child abuse experts agree it appears female teachers
are being prosecuted more vigorously than in the past.
The crackdown is the result of "two seismic shifts,"
said Christopher Anderson, executive director of Male Survivor,
the largest U.S. advocacy organization for male sex-crime victims.
[I just (on 2015-04-21) visited the web site for Male Survivor,
http://www.malesurvivor.org/,
and before it would reveal its content,
the first thing their web site displayed
was a full-screen request for donations,
which says, quoting,
"One is a recognition that it does not matter
who the perpetrator is or what the circumstances are.
A teacher has absolutely no business
engaging in sexual contact with a student,"
Anderson said.
[In all cases?
What if the parents of the young male approve,
viewing it as just part of his growing up,
part of his learning experience,
part of what might be called "sex ed"?]
"The second is a shift in the culture where boys and their parents
are feeling empowered to come forward to say that
something has been done."
In recent weeks,
a Stamford, Connecticut high school English teacher, Danielle Watkins, 32,
whose case was prosecuted by a female state's attorney,
was sentenced to up to 10 years in prison for having sex with an underage male student.
In Michigan, a female judge sentenced Kathryn Ronk, 30,
a Spanish teacher at Bishop Foley High School in Madison Heights,
to up to 15 years in prison for having a sexual relationship with a 15-year-old boy,
saying "the law does not recognize a double standard."
In New Jersey, a female prosecutor said
the most lenient plea deal she would offer Nicole Dufault, 35,
a Columbia High School English teacher accused of
sexual relationships with six teenage boys,
was 15 years in prison.
There are contrary examples, such as Pennsylvania's Erica Ann Ginnetti, 35,
the Lower Moreland High School math teacher
who had sex with a 17-year-old student
and was sentenced to 30 days in jail by a male judge who said,
"What young man would not jump on that candy?"
That was after a female prosecutor reportedly said in court that
the victim's senior year became a nightmare, his grades plunged
and he still struggles with social interactions.
[Interesting.
I can see that happening if the young man really believes
he had done something wrong,
that the sexual act was wrong and that he had been a participant in it,
perhaps a willing one.
In such a case, remorse and guilt, would be very likely,
very possibly resulting in the conditions mentioned above.
("I really enjoyed having sex with her. But it was wrong.
There must be something wrong with me, or her, or both".)
I am merely observing that not all young men would view the act so negatively.]
But the Twitter furor ignited by the April "SNL" skit in which
a male judge fist-bumps a boy who had sex with his "hot" teacher
indicates how attitudes are changing.
"Appalled by the #SNL sketch glorifying sexual abuse of a male student by female teacher.
Sends the worst message &minimizes real experiences,"
tweeted Heather Timmis @hnt108.
An SNL spokesperson declined to comment.
There is no central U.S. reporting system for tracking
female teachers who prey on male students,
according to federal education officials,
but Abbott has been charting the crimes from news coverage.
His research showed that female teachers far more often than male teachers
use social media to lure students,
creating an electronic "paper trail" that may aid prosecutions.
School districts are increasingly moving to ban
private social media contact between teachers and students,
sometimes in an effort to prevent inappropriate relationships.
"Social media enables the behavior to start," Abbott said.
"There is no way that a teacher is going to walk up to a kid in the hallway and say,
'Hey, would you like to see a naked picture of me?' They won't do it.
But they will do that on social media.
It's like it erases what used to be that barrier."
(This version of the story corrects to say Bishop Foley High School, not Madison High School, in 12th paragraph)
(Reporting by Barbara Goldberg; Editing by Scott Malone and Andrew Hay)
In U.S., more female teachers sexually abusing students: news reports
by James Varney
Nola.com, 2015-04-21
[This is brief news article that just references and summarizes the above Reuters story.]
Double standards, lack of awareness
by Hollie McKay
Fox News, 2017-06-30
...
Married Kentucky teacher Lindsey Jarvis, 27, ignited a media maelstrom this month after being charged with rape, sodomy and unlawful transaction with a student. Also this month,
31-year-old Connecticut teacher, Laura Ramos, was removed from her job at Central High School over allegations of sexually assaulting a special education student.
Loryn Barclay, 24, was arrested Sunday and faces charges as a result of an alleged relationship with a boy while she worked as a substitute teacher.
...
Myriam S. Denov, an associate professor in the School of Social Work at Montreal’s McGill University, says cultural stereotypes about women have obscured the awareness of the frequency of female sexual offending.
“While the prevalence rates of female sex offending are small when compared to rates of male sex offending, there is evidence to suggest that sexual abuse by females may be under-recognized,” she says in one of her books, “Perspectives on Female Sex Offending: A Culture of Denial.”
There is a great deal of data that points to “a widespread denial of women as potential sexual aggressors that could work to obscure the true dimensions of the problem,” she writes in the book.
According to the Center for Sex Offender Management,
a project operated by the U.S. Department of Justice,
females account for around 10 percent of all sex crimes reported to authorities.
However,
a much higher percentage – over 30 percent – of all teacher-student sexual offenses
are estimated to have been perpetrated by females.
In the latest available statistics, in 2014,
just under 800 school employees were prosecuted for student sex crimes –
around one-third female.
...
“Unfortunately, it is still socially acceptable for the male student to become victimized,” said California-based criminal defense attorney, Leo Terrell.
“Therefore the sex crime was welcomed by the male victim because he had the physically strength to prevent said crime.
Such a pre-historic perspective misses the mark.”
[ "pre-historic" Please.
This just proves how ahistorical today's value systems are in many ways.
Will those "modern", "enlightened" value systems lead to a more successful society? No way, in my opinion.
Just more, more, more customers for the therapists.
How many of today's women need "therapy" just to get through life?
IMO they need therapy because
they have been sold such a bill of goods
by the feminists, by today's culture, and in some cases by their parents.
BTW, when I was growing up in the 1950s, any mention of "therapy" referred to physical therapy.
The creation of this whole economic segment of economy-sapping (mental) therapists
is a pathology, one designed to benefit the demographics which make up
most of the therapist occupation, IMO.]
Tampa Bay Times (TBO), 2014-04-15
A 29-year-old Polk County teacher was arrested Monday night on charges of having sex with a 17-year-old student during a four-month relationship that involved a pregnancy and abortion, Lakeland police said.
Jennifer Christine Fichter, an English teacher at Central Florida Aerospace Academy, told the boy’s mother that she was in love with her son and admitted to several sexual encounters, police said.
The relationship began in November and the sex occurred during early morning hours in Fichter’s Toyota pickup truck, according to a police affidavit.
The teen told detectives he and the teacher met for sex three times in the parking lot of a Lakeland apartment complex and three times at a location off New Tampa Highway. He also said they had sex four times outside the city in Polk and Hillsborough, and those incidents are under investigation in those counties, Lakeland police said.
On Jan. 27, the teen’s mother became suspicious when she noticed her son was not home at 5 a.m. and he lied about his whereabouts, police said. She began to review his text messages and discovered texts from two names, and one discussed an “age difference,” police said.
The mother confronted her son, who admitted both names were used by Fichter, police said. The mother informed police of the relationship Monday.
On Monday night, the mother agreed to make a controlled, recorded phone call to Fichter for investigators. During the call, Fichter admitted she became pregnant with the teen’s child and had an abortion, the affidavit said.
Fichter also said she was in love with the student, had sex with him 20 to 30 times, wanted to maintain the relationship and did not regret her actions, according the affidavit.
Fichter faces six counts of unlawful sexual activity with a minor. She was arrested at her Davenport home and booked at the Polk County Jail.
Central Florida Aerospace Academy, 4141 Medulla Road, is a Polk public school career academy that prepares students for the aviation and aeronautics industries. It is an extension of Kathleen High School.
Tampa Bay Tribune (TBO), 2015-04-03
Former teacher Jennifer Fichter has pleaded guilty to all Polk County charges of having sex with a minor.
Fichter, 30, was arrested last year over accusations that she had sex with three students.
On Thursday, she pleaded guilty to 37 counts of unlawful sexual contact with a minor.
She is scheduled to be sentenced July 2. She faces up to 15 years in prison per count.
[No plea agreement?]
...
Tampa Bay Tribune (TBO), 2015-07-03
The Polk County teacher who pleaded guilty to 37 counts of unlawful sexual contact with a minor received 22 years in prison this afternoon.
Jennifer Fichter, 30, faced up to 15 years in prison per count when she was sentenced in Polk County Circuit Court. She has 30 days to appeal.
“We hope this sentence helps you change and become a different person so when you come out,
you’re not the person you were before,” Judge Glenn Shelby told her.
...
Fox 13 News, 2016-11-29
[The story includes a video of an emotional courthouse hallway confrontation
between, evidently, two mothers, of Jennifer Fichter and of one of her male accusers.]
I just want to say that,
if when I was 16 I had an experience such as that described below
with teachers such as those,
I would have been the happiest boy on earth,
viewing the experience as a step forward into adulthood
and a wonderful chance to learn about sex from caring teachers.
So am I guilty too?
Or just too young, at that age, to be able to give consent.
Does such activity make everyone involved guilty?
If so, just who is the victim?
Are boys really damaged by such events?
(By the way, note that
Ms. Dufresne, 32, is the daughter of St. Charles district court Judge Emile St. Pierre,
and also is currently married and the mother of three children,
so we are not exactly talking about the dregs of society here.)
(The Kenner report says the incident started at 9 p.m. and ended at 6 a.m.)
by Helen Freund
Nola.com | The Times-Picayune, 2014-10-01
...
[Kenner police chief] Glaser said the two women were friends,
and both had been teachers of the student.
Respess was his English teacher last year,
Dufresne his English instructor until this week, the chief said.
Authorities said they were tipped to the allegations on Friday,
when school system officials told the St. Charles Parish Sheriff's Office that
a male student was "bragging to other students
that he was having a sexual relationship with teachers."
Detectives interviewed the student,
who said the encounter was consensual
and gave the officers an account of the events, Glaser said.
Notwithstanding his statement, the legal age of consent in Louisiana is 17.
...
by Helen Freund
Nola.com | The Times-Picayune, 2014-10-02
In the case of two Destrehan High School teachers
accused of having group sex with a student,
some new details emerged Thursday with the release of booking records on
Shelley Dufresne, 32, and Rachel Respess, 24.
Among the assertions in the brief reports filed by Kenner police:
The booking record was released a day after Kenner police arrested the two teachers on charges of carnal knowledge of a juvenile, indecent behavior with a juvenile and contributing to the delinquency of a juvenile. Each was released on a $7,000 bond.
Dufresne earlier had been arrested in a separate incident, for allegedly having sex with the boy on an unspecified date in September at a home in Montz, where she lives. The boy was student in her English class, and had been a student in Respess' English class in 2013-14. The two teachers were friends.
The boy, now 17, told investigators he consented to sex with his teachers. At age 16, however, he was a juvenile under Louisiana law, with limited -- if any -- ability in the eyes of the courts to consent to sex with an adult. Even between student ages of 17 and 21, Louisiana law forbids sexual encounters between educators and students.
Kenner Police Chief Mike Glaser said that Respess gave investigators a statement where she "almost" confessed to having sex with the student but did not go into "intricate details."
"She gave a similar account of his story," Glaser said. "But she stopped short of a total confession."
Kenner police have not received a statement from Dufresne.
Authorities said
they first learned of the boy's special relationship with his English instructors
when school system officials told the St. Charles Parish Sheriff's Office that
he was "bragging to other students"
of having a sex with teachers."
Glaser said investigators have "no doubt" that the women had sexual intercourse with the student --
and that they are investigating a rumor that the encounter was recorded on video.
Both teachers have been suspended from their jobs without pay, a spokeswoman for St. Charles public schools said.
By Martin Gould In Kenner, Louisiana for MailOnline
Daily Mail (UK), 2015-10-10
The teenage boy at the center of the Louisiana school threesome scandal is devastated that
his bragging has ruined the promising careers of two teachers.
'He is really down about it right now,'
the high school junior's grandfather told MailOnline in an exclusive interview.
'All boys that age want to brag about what they are doing.
He didn't expect it would come to this.'
...
'He feels really bad,' said the boy's grandfather. 'These women have families and he knows how terrible it is for them. He knows they will never be able to teach again and could very well go to prison.
'He just wishes the whole thing had never happened. It's a shocking thing — a real shock for all of us — when you have teachers who should be educating doing this instead.'
MailOnline is not identifying the boy who turned 17 just days after the alleged ménage à trois as he is still a minor.
The boy is said to have had an ongoing affair with Dufresne, his 11th grade English teacher at Destrehan, a sleepy commuter town west of New Orleans.
According to police she picked him up after a Friday Night Lights high school football game on September 12 and drove him to Respess's apartment in Kenner, Louisiana — where she had only moved two weeks previously after living with her parents.
Respess, a pretty blonde who used the name 'CajunBabe' for her email addresses, decided she needed freedom away from her parents' upscale 3,900-sq. ft. home in Destrehan and moved 12 miles into a cramped apartment with peeling paint.
'She only moved in at the end of August,' a neighbor who would identify himself only as 'Will,' told MailOnline.
'There was a lot of activity going on in that short time.'
'All sorts of people you wouldn't expect were coming and going,' he added.
Dufresne, the daughter of a local judge, is separately charged with having sex with the teen in the small oil town of Montz, 25 miles west of New Orleans, where she lives with her oil company manager husband Wes and their three young children.
...
by Brett Duke
Times-Picayune, 2015-04-09
Photo caption: Former Destrehan High School teacher Shelley Dufresne leaves the St. Charles Parish Courthouse in Hahnville on Thursday, April 9, 2015
(Photo by Brett Duke, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune )
Former Destrehan High School teacher Shelley Dufresne pleaded guilty to obscenity Thursday (April 9), admitting in court that she had sex with a 16-year-old student. The plea lets her and the student avoid a public trial, and allows her to bypass registering as a sex offender and serving three years in prison.
She must spend 90 days at an inpatient mental health facility, serve three years of active probation and pay a $1,000 fine. If she fails to complete the court-approved mental health program by the end of August, she must report to the St. Charles Parish jail Sept. 1 to serve any days for which she has not received credit, Judge Anne Simon said during the plea hearing at the Hahnville courthouse.
Dufresne also agreed to surrender her teaching license. With the parents of her former student sitting in the front row of the courtroom, Dufresne admitted to having "consensual sexual intercourse with a juvenile," as detailed in the carnal knowledge law.
"Is it true?" Simon asked Dufresne. "Yes, ma'am," she replied.
Dufresne left the courthouse at 11:35 a.m. with her mother. She and her attorney, Deanne Williams, would not comment to a reporter.
The student's parents, his mother appearing angry as she stared at Dufresne, also would not speak with reporters. They were accompanied by an attorney who sat with them during the hearing.
Dufresne, a 32-year-old Montz resident who is married and has three children, was one of two Destrehan High teachers arrested last fall on charges of having sex with the same student. Their arrests touched off a flurry of gossip and speculation in Destrehan and online, particularly over the notion of women in authority positions seducing -- or molesting -- an under-aged boy, and contributed to Louisiana's reputation for inappropriate teacher-student relationships.
Her plea came during a status hearing in 29th Judicial District Court. It was accepted by Simon, the retired New Iberia jurist whom the Louisiana Supreme Court appointed to handle the case after the three local judges -- including Dufresne's father, Judge Emile St. Pierre -- stepped aside.
Authorities say Dufresne and the male student had sex between Aug. 22 and Sept. 27 at a home in Montz. They have not specified the date of the crime, or whether it happened at Dufresne's house.
Her initial charge, carnal knowledge with a juvenile, remains intact, according to the plea agreement that her attorney reached with prosecutors. The district attorney's office filed a new bill of information Thursday, charging her with the additional offense of obscenity.
She pleaded guilty to obscenity, and Simon deferred a 3-year prison sentence on the carnal knowledge charge. If Dufresne completes the terms of her probation for obscenity, prosecutors will dismiss the carnal knowledge charge, Simon said.
District Attorney Joel Chaisson II, who was in court during the plea hearing, released a statement saying, "I want to thank my special prosecutor, Julie Cullen, for her efforts to reach a fair resolution of the case and to secure a felony guilty plea, thereby sparing the juvenile victim in this matter from having to testify at a public trial." He said carnal knowledge carried a potential 10-year prison sentence and mandatory registration as a sex offender. If Dufresne breaks the rules of her probation, Chaisson said, he will prosecute her on the carnal knowledge offense.
Chaisson said the victim's parents were consulted and that they "expressed their support for this resolution of the case."
Simon, in discussing the plea agreement, said she was advised that it is the "usual" treatment for first-time offenders in St. Charles Parish. Since prosecutors filed the carnal knowledge charge in November, Simon has presided over several status hearings. However, in recent weeks, there have been rumblings behind the scenes that plea discussions were underway.
Thursday's session was scheduled to be another status hearing. It unfolded in a courtroom in which the constant racket of a jackhammer, from courthouse construction, reverberated and even led Simon to pause. "Is there any way we can stop that?" the judge asked. "No? Okay, I'll just talk louder."
Separately, Dufresne and Rachel Respess, 24, are accused of having group sex with the student at Respess' Kenner apartment on Sept. 12, Dufresne's birthday. That case is pending in Jefferson Parish, where the district attorney's office has not made a decision on charging the two women.
The boy was a student in Dufresne's English class last fall, and had been a student in Respess' English class in 2013-14. Now 17, he told St. Charles Parish sheriff's deputies that he had sex with the teachers at Respess' apartment after the Destrehan Wildcats-Helen Cox Cougars football game. The Kenner Police Department report says the crime began at 9 p.m. and ended at 6 a.m.
The report indicates that the women consumed alcohol but doesn't say how much or what kind. It doesn't indicate whether the student consumed alcohol or identify him, as he was a juvenile at the time as well as a sex-crime victim. NOLA.com|The Times-Picayune's practice is not to name victims of sex crimes.
Although investigators say the boy said he consented to sex, he was a minor at the time. The general age of consent in Louisiana is 17. However, state law also forbids teachers to have sexual relationships with students younger than 21.
At the time of the Kenner arrests, police said they were investigating reports that someone had recorded video of the activity on a phone. The results of a forensic test of a phone have never been made public.
In Hahnville, Dufresne was scheduled to stand trial May 20. Her attorney gave prosecutors medical records during an hour-long private conference with the judge in February. Dufresne has been under house arrest since she bonded out of jail, and has been allowed to leave her home to attend daily mental health appointments. According to the court records, she attends outpatient therapy sessions four hours each weekday for treatment of depression and mood disorder at River Oaks Hospital in Elmwood.
In November, she sought an adjustment in her house arrest conditions to help her children, ages 3, 5 and 7, to school and doctor's appointments in Baton Rouge and New Orleans. The motion stated that Dufrene's oldest child has been diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder and required therapy twice a week: Tuesdays in Baton Rouge for occupational therapy from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. and Thursdays in New Orleans for physical therapy from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m.
Dufresne and Respess were suspended without pay after their arrests.
By Littice Bacon-Blood
NOLA.com, 2015-09-01
Former Destrehan High School teacher Shelley Dufresne returned to court in St. Charles Parish on Tuesday (Sept. 1) to plead guilty once again to a felony obscenity charge for having sex with a 16-year-old student. Dufresne, 32, had pleaded guilty April 9 to the same charge and received a deferred prison sentence.
She had to reaffirm the original terms and conditions of her plea agreement because District Attorney Joel Chaisson II's office on April 10 filed an amended bill of information charging her with a misdemeanor, although she received a felony sentence. During Tuesday's proceeding, Chaisson's office submitted yet another amended bill charging Dufresne with violating Louisiana Revised Statute 14:106 (A)(1), felony obscenity, instead of R.S. 14:106 (A)(7)(a), the misdemeanor of April 10.
Chaisson has said the April 10 charge was an attempt to adhere to the April 9 plea agreement that let Dufresne avoid jail and not registering as a sex offender. Her April 9 plea required her to register, although that was not included as a condition of probation imposed by Judge Anne Simon.
The April 10 hearing on the misdemeanor was conducted privately in the judge's chamber, not in open court, and was criticized by Metropolitan Crime Commission President Rafael Goyeneche III. He said it appeared to give preferential treatment to Dufresne, daughter of Judge Emile St. Pierre of the 29th Judicial District Court. Chaisson denied that, saying neither party realized April 10 that the charge had been changed to a misdemeanor.
After that hearing, Dufresne's attorney, Deanne Williams, filed a motion to correct the error. "All parties involved were under the impression and intention that defendant had pled to a felony, with felony supervision and specific felony probation requirements," she wrote.
During Tuesday's proceeding, Dufresne was required again to acknowledge that she had sex with a 16-year-old boy, referred to by the initials "C.P.," and to plead guilty to felony obscenity. Under the agreement, if Dufresne violates any condition of her probation, she could be prosecuted for carnal knowledge of a juvenile, which carries a possible 10-year prison sentence and registration as a sex offender.
Simon a retired judge from New Iberia, resentenced Dufresne to a deferred three-year prison term, three years of active probation and a $1,000 fine. The judge said Dufresne has already completed the required 90-day in-patient mental health treatment and surrendered her teaching certificate.
Dufresne had sex with the student in 2014 at a home in Montz, where she lives. Barring a probation violation, Tuesday's hearing wraps up the matter in St. Charles Parish.
However, Jefferson Parish prosecutors have yet to decide whether Dufresne and another former Destrehan High teacher, Rachel Respess, will face charges there. The two are accused of having group sex with the same student at Respess' Kenner apartment last year.
She's 37, has a family - and had sex with a student
by Jason Nark
Philadelphia Daily News, 2015-11-10
...
A 2004 study commissioned by the U.S. Department of Education suggested that the number of female offenders may be higher than statistics show - that there may be more situations like that of the English teacher, because "males have been socialized to believe they should be flattered or appreciative of sexual interest from a female."
[Yo, Department of Education:
That may be the consequence of something much more fundamental and biological than "socialization".
But you wouldn't expect the PC scuzoids to recognize that, would you?]
...
But stories of female teachers prosecuted for having sex with male students - notably Debra Lafave and Mary Kay Letourneau - increasingly have grabbed headlines.
They set online comment pages ablaze
and often bring out the worst in locker-room humor.
["the worst"?
Maybe that "locker-room humor" expresses reality far better than
the pure crap coming from some of the degreed class
such as the "therapist" quoted below.]
Double standards have been cited in the prosecution of male and female teachers, and in the way they are described in police and media accounts. Van Halen wrote a song about it. It's a popular theme for pornographers.
"There's a tendency for society to minimize,
a sense of denial that the male victim is actually hurt,"
said Stuart Bassman, a Cincinnati-based therapist
who has worked with victims of sexual assault
and testified in cases involving teachers and students.
"It's not consensual and it's not a relationship."
["It"?
When you say that, you are making a universal assertion,
about all such relations.
In my opinion,
that statement abuses the definitions of "consensual" and "relationship".
Sure, if you define those words narrowly enough, that statement is true.
But it's a matter of how you define those words.
To use the word "victim" is to prejudge the relation.
To assert that ALL male students who have sex with their teachers are "actually hurt"
is, I think, absurd.
If that were the case,
why would the "locker-room humor" cited above
be what it is:
Often, a wish that other male students could have "gotten some".
Indeed, if having sex with female teachers is so awful for the male,
why do other men describe it as "gotten some"?
Who is the seeker, and who is the giver?
If this guy (with a Ph.D. or M.D.) thinks
male students cannot get something positive from
having sex with an attractive female teacher,
he's either crazy (yes, crazy) or, maybe,
a raving male homosexual who is unable to view heterosexual sex
as benefiting the male.
In either case, he is only showing his sickness.
It's really a shame that such sickos are taken as authorities by the court system.
I am not denying that some male student / female teacher sex
can be very non-consensual, abusive, and harmful to the male student.
I am merely asserting that such relations are not necessarily so.
And as to his being an "expert witness",
I wonder if there aren't people with equal credentials
who will take the opposite view to his.]
...
Even though several people - including a therapist and a probation officer - had advised her against it, the English teacher spoke with the People Paper for two hours at a diner outside Philadelphia.
She spoke candidly about her struggles, about accepting that she was the perpetrator and her student the victim, and about how she's trying to build a future with those incidents forever etched in her past.
[Let me insert here an earlier part of the article,
where she spoke about the relation:]
"There was this element of the fantastical, of leaving your life for a little while: the mopping, and the cleaning and taking care of children. You have this boy telling you you're Aphrodite, that you're beautiful," the 37-year-old woman said.
"The lines got blurred. I've had boys hit on me before. It took a lot for me to slip into that. It wasn't just like I decided I'm going to do this 'cause I'm attracted to this boy."
[End of insertion from earlier part.
The reason I inserted that here
was to demonstrate that it is not necessarily clear
that she was "the perpetrator".
Is it possible that teenage boys "hit on" their teachers?
Is it possible that they can be very persuasive in trying to talk their teachers into having sex?
Sorry, doctors,
I can certainly imagine a teenage boy fantasizing about having sex with a gorgeous teacher.
And if his fantasies were realized,
it is literally impossible for me to see how he is NECESSARILY a victim.]
"It definitely wasn't about power, that's for sure. I think it's about vulnerability," she said. "There was a vulnerable situation there. I never thought of a student that way, ever. I should have recognized it, teaching high school all these years. It's ridiculous that I never realized it."
[The educational system may have very good reasons for prohibiting sex between male students and female teachers.
But I believe asserting that such relations automatically victimize the male is wrong.]
...
"It scares me that in 10 years he will come to me and want answers," she said. "I propelled him into an adult world, into adult situations, before he was ready for it. It's just bulls---."
[It seems to me that there is a certain circularity to such assertions.
As to sex being restricted by age,
I wonder if people who make such statements
are aware of the age of marriage of many of the men and women
in the lines of the royal houses of Britain, Hanover, and Prussia,
for example.
See, e.g., the genealogical table in the appendices to
Donald Burrows, Handel, Second Edition (Amazon, OUP).
Ages in mid-teens are not uncommon.
Somehow those teen brides and grooms went on to being highly successful monarchs and consorts
of their various kingdoms and electorates.
Are we to believe they were victimized?
Or are we to observe that the reality is that standards have changed.]
by Michelle Hunter
NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune, 2015-12-09
[Among the comments to this article:]
by Amy2211
There was actually a guy who went to school with me who was doing it with a female teacher.
She wanted to stop and he basically threatened to blackmail her if she quit.
So she had no choice.
Later I heard she and her husband moved to Mississippi to get away from this guy.
If the young man doing it with Rachel and Shelly had been smarter
he could have kept this thing going for a long time.
When he blabbed it to his friends it was all over.
He should have kept quiet and threatened to turn them in to the authorities if they stopped doing him.
by nolaface
@Amy2211 What is wrong with you?
You are suggesting it would be better if he were to resort to sexual extortion?
Is Euric Cain posting from jail?
by Amy2211
@nolaface @Amy2211 It would have ended more happily for all 3 of them, definitely.
Happiness is sometimes overlooked in our rush for justice.
They could still be teaching and they would not be in risk of going to jail.
A better solution.
By Ben Myers
NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune, 2015-12-14
Two former Destrehan High School teachers were formally charged in Jefferson Parish on Monday (Dec. 14), more than a year after an alleged sexual encounter with a 16-year-old student in Kenner. Authorities previously described the incident as group sex, but a bill of information Monday did not accuse one of the teachers, 25-year-old Rachel Respess of a sex crime.
Shelley Dufresne, 33, is charged with two counts of carnal knowledge of a juvenile, while Respess is charged with failing to report the commission of a felony.
"They are not alleging she had sex with a juvenile. We will at this point plead not guilty and see what happens down the road," said Respess' attorney, Jeffrey Smith. "I'm sure there will be a pre-trial, there will be some discussion and we will deal with it in the appropriate fashion at the appropriate time"
Respess and Duefresne were both initially charged with one count of carnal knowledge of a juvenile and indecent behavior with a juvenile. It wasn't immediately clear Monday evening why Connick's 14-month review of the case resulted in the different charges.
Dufresne pleaded guilty in April to an obscenity charge stemming from her month-long sexual relationship with the student. The encounter with Respess allegedly occurred on Sept. 12, 2014 at Respess' apartment in Kenner.
Dufresne was sentenced on the St. Charles charge to a deferred three-year prison sentence, three years probation, a $1,000 fine and 90-day inpatient mental health treatment.
The three-year-old law Respess is charged with violating provides up to a year in jail for failing to report "any homicide, rape or sexual abuse of a child."
"They are very serious allegations, and they involve reporting," Smith said, adding that he needs to further research the statute. "Obviously, I'm happy she was not charged with a sex crime."
BY CHAD CALDER
The Advocate (Louisiana), 2015-12-14
Two former Destrehan High School teachers accused last year of having sex with a 16-year-old male student were formally charged by the Jefferson Parish District Attorney’s Office on Monday.
Shelley Dufresne, 33, was charged with two counts of carnal knowledge of a juvenile, while Rachel Respess, 25, faces one count of failure to report the commission of certain felonies.
The two were charged in a bill of information that indicates there were actually two encounters in Jefferson Parish in 2014, one in August and another in September.
Dufresne and Respess were arrested after the second incident, in which authorities said the student was taken to Respess’ Kenner apartment for a three-way sexual encounter on Sept. 12.
Dufresne also was arrested in St. Charles Parish on allegations she had sex with the student on separate occasions there.
Respess’ attorney, Jeffery Smith, has said in previous interviews that Respess was intoxicated in her home when Dufresne and the boy showed up, and that Respess “never entered into consensual sex with this young man.”
Smith said Monday that Respess will plead not guilty.
“I appreciate all the work that’s gone into this investigation,” he said. “We are entering a plea of not guilty. I’m glad she wasn’t charged with committing a sex crime.”
Dufresne’s attorney could not be reached for comment.
The charges against Dufresne each carry a maximum sentence of 10 years in jail and a $5,000 fine.
The charge against Respess carries a maximum sentence of one year in jail and a $500 fine.
Dufresne agreed to a plea deal earlier this year in St. Charles Parish that will allow her to avoid any prison time there or having to register as a sex offender.
The Jefferson case was allotted to Judge Danyelle Taylor of 24th Judicial District Court in Gretna.
By Littice Bacon-Blood
NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune, 2015-12-16
Jefferson Parish prosecutors took more than a year after their arrests to file charges against Shelley Dufresne, 33, and Rachel Respess, 25, the former Destrehan High School teachers accused by police of having sex with a 16-year-old student.
When they did so Monday (Dec. 14), the charges contained at least three surprises:
1. Respess not charged with sex crime --
When Kenner police arrested Respess on Oct. 1, 2014,
Chief Michael Glaser said investigators had "no doubt"
both women had sex with the student at Respess' apartment,
and that Respess had "almost" confessed to the deed.
Glaser said Respess corroborated what the student told investigators about the sexual encounter.
Both Dufresne and Respess were booked with carnal knowledge of a juvenile.
Respess' defense attorney, Jeffrey Smith, has maintained his client's innocence,
and he cryptically stated earlier this year that she never had "consensual sex" with the student.
Now the only formal charge against Respess is failing to report the commission of a felony.
2. Dufresne charged with two sex incidents in Jefferson --
Dufrene's initial arrest record provided by Kenner police
indicated only one sexual encounter with the student,
on the night of Sept. 12, 2014, at Respess' apartment.
A booking report released by Kenner police the day after their arrests
seemed to intimate a second incident in Jefferson Parish,
but authorities would not elaborate on it.
Now the bill of information against Dufresne cites two sexual encounters with the student:
Aug. 22 and Sept. 19 of last year.
It doesn't specify a location for either.
(Dufresne has already pleaded guilty in a separate case
to having sex with the same student in St. Charles Parish.)
For Respess, the Jefferson charge of failing to report a felony
says she committed that crime between Aug. 22 and Sept. 19.
3. No other charges --
When arrested in Kenner, both teachers were booked not only with carnal knowledge
but with indecent behavior with a juvenile and contributing to his delinquency.
Investigators said alcohol had been consumed during the Sept. 12 gathering at Respess' apartment,
but prosecutors didn't charge the teachers with that.
[Among the comments to the above article were:]
by Leigh Silvestri
@tina_gaspard I am not making excuses I went to school with Rachel and was taught by Shelley.
Shelley was Rachel and I [presumably "my"] teacher she was also Rachel's cheerleading coach.
Rachel may have been her colleague but she was a mentor and teacher 1st.
Things with that situation may not always be black and white.
Maybe they have been doing this since Rachel was in school
and Shelley has kept her in that state since then.
by southernroads
I have heard people blaming the student,
a 16 year old male would have sex with a tree stump.
By Lawrence Bonk
Independent Journal Review, 2015-12-24
by Danielle Dreilinger
NOLA, 2016-04-28
Destrehan High School teacher Shelley Dufresne moved in fast. From the first day of the 2014-15 academic year, she targeted a 16-year-old boy in her English class, flirting with him every day. When he got sick and had to stay home, she contacted him on social media, "ostensibly to determine if he was feeling better" but in reality to establish a "close personal and emotional relationship with her student."
Soon, she was sleeping with the student, more than 40 times in 36 days.
[Guess that's one woman who doesn't dislike heterosexual sex,
or need drugs to help her libido.]
Those are among the new allegations in a previously unreported lawsuit filed by the student and his parents against Dufresne, fellow teacher Rachel Respess and the St. Charles Parish public school system. Filed Aug. 11 and amended Feb. 25, the suit is pending in 29th Judicial District Court.
...
The lawsuit adds details -- unproven -- to the criminal cases. It says Dufresne treated the boy as her favorite in class, "encouraging (him) to believe that responding to Ms. Dufresne's attention and advances would impact his grade." To cement the relationship, she offered to take him home from football practices and games.
Only two or three weeks into the term, the suit says, Dufresne kissed the student in her classroom during school hours. They began having sex Aug. 22, 2014, continuing through Sept. 27, more than 40 times in all.
Respess had learned of the improper relationship
but did not report it to the authorities or try to protect the victim, the suit says.
Instead, she offered up her Kenner apartment for sex after a football game,
eventually joining in the act, according to the suit.
Police say the teachers engaged in group sex with the student at Respess' apartment on Sept. 12.
Although police booked Respess with a sex crime, prosecutors did not file one against her.
Both teachers were arrested in October 2014. After the crimes became public, the suit says, Dufresne "made disparaging comments about (the victim) to third parties on social media causing him embarrassment and humiliation."
...
by Danielle Dreilinger
NOLA, 2016-04-28
per newly revealed suit
BY CHAD CALDER
The Advocae, 2016-04-28
...
The suit says Dufresne began flirting with the boy during the 2014-15 school year, even reaching out to him on social media when he was out of school sick.
That contact, the suit says, was ostensibly to determine if he was feeling better, but she began contacting him regularly, fostering a close personal and emotional relationship with him.
Eventually, the suit says, she kissed him in her classroom during school hours. The relationship soon became sexual, and the two had intercourse more than 40 times in the ensuing weeks. Dufresne performed oral sex on the boy as well, the suit says.
The petition says that when fellow teacher Rachel Respess, 25, found out about the relationship, she did not turn in her co-worker and in fact offered to let her use Respess’ Kenner apartment.
“She ultimately joined the abuse by having sex with (the boy) and Ms. Dufresne in her apartment following a Destrehan High School football game,” the suit says.
...
The suit claims the boy and his parents suffered mental anguish, emotional distress, humiliation and damage to their reputation and family relationships.
It says the boy’s ability to maintain healthy relationships was damaged, the parents lost wages and career opportunities, and both incurred costs related to counseling and treatment.
...
The School Board has filed a response contending the time periods referred to in the suit are too vague, that the boy should be the main plaintiff because he is now of age and that the boy’s parents are not entitled to many of the claims for which they seek damages.
[Among the comments to this story were:]
John Smith
The lawsuit seems more for the parents than the child. If they weren't so hungry for money or attention they would allow the child to become grown and file the suti on his behalf. Now this kid had sex with two women at least 40 times and then decided to come clean, these women really need to be sued... reply if you like...
John Talluto [to John Smith]
Agreed, the parents are in this for what they can get out of this. Slimeballs! Probably white trash. It is hard for me to believe how far this thing has gone. In the seventies, if I were the male student involved in such a situation, my parents would have admonished me to stop such conduct.....(such admonishment I would have ignored)....and the matter would certainly not have been reported to the District Attorney. What are the parents claiming damages for here? What is the extent of such damages, in a monetary sense, in this case? Do the parents have a cause of action for this?
By Danielle Dreilinger, NOLA.com |
The Times-Picayune, 2016-07-16
Former Destrehan High teacher Shelley Dufresne, who admitted in criminal court to having sex with a student in 2014, said in a new civil filing that the student tried to blackmail her and circulated a lewd selfie boasting of their relationship.
Dufresne's assertion was made in her response filed Tuesday (July 12) and posted online late this week in a civil lawsuit brought in St. Charles Parish by the former student and his parents. They are suing Dufresne, her former colleague Rachel Respess and the St. Charles Parish School Board for damages.
The student's civil suit portrays Dufresne as an aggressor who mocked the boy on social media. Her response, which makes for her first detailed comment since the allegations were made public in 2014, paints a different picture.
The plaintiff "was not a young child of tender age incapable of understanding his specific actions," Dufresne response says. His actions were "intentional, orchestrated and unprovoked." Therefore, the student and his family should not get damages, Dufresne's filing says.
...
The student and parents wrote in their civil complaint that Dufresne moved in quickly to cement a close relationship with the boy, eventually having sex with him more than 40 times in 36 days.
In her response, Dufresne denied everything except that she lived in the parish and taught the plaintiff English at Destrehan High.
Her response said the boy
"remov(ed) his genitals from his clothing and plac(ed) himself upon the defendant"
when she was asleep or passed out.
He recorded that on his cell phone,
disseminated it to fellow members of the football team --
then deleted the photo before it could be used in court, the document said.
The deletion constitutes "spoliation of evidence," the response said.
The student bragged about taking photos and videos of the teachers without their consent, and told people that he had sex with one of the teachers to get revenge, the court filing said.
He tweeted and retweeted, saying his "sexual conquest" of the teachers elevated his social status.
Rather than Dufresne offering the student preferential treatment in her English class, the boy "made it very clear" that he "expected to receive favoritism and good grades," including exemption from completing work, according to her account. When she did not comply, "he then made certain allegations" about her to retaliate, the document said.
He also reacted in a threatening manner when Dufresne told him Sept. 18, 2014, that she was going to ask for him to be transferred to another class. Her account said the student told her she had "better not," insinuating that he would retaliate.
After news of the relationship broke a few weeks later, the student sought "attention and notoriety," calling himself "the king of SCP," St. Charles Parish, the document says. As late as April 2015 he responded, presumably positively, to a person who created a social media post linking to an article about the case and saying the student deserved "a statue of you erected on hill at Rome," Dufresne's court filing said.
...
by Ryan Arena
St. Charles Parish Herald-Guide, 2016-07-22, July 22 at 11:00 am
Former Destrehan High School teacher Shelley Dufresne, who pleaded guilty to having sexual relations with a male student in 2014, has accused this same student of bragging about those relations on social media and attempting to blackmail her in return for preferential treatment and better grades.
These accusations and others surfaced last week through Dufresne’s response to a civil suit filed by the former student and his parents against Dufresne, fellow former DHS teacher Rachel Respess and the St. Charles Parish School Board.
...
Dufresne claimed she intended to request the student be transferred from her English class to another in September of 2014, at which time the student replied that she “better not,” insinuating retaliation. In the court filing, she alleges he made it clear he expected favoritism, good grades and exemption from certain class projects and assignments in return for not making “certain allegations.”
She also alleges he actively sought attention and notoriety for these allegations, including “re-tweeting” social media posts offering congratulatory statements. One such statement given as example claimed to the student, “you need a statue of you erected on a hill in Rome.”
Another claim stated the student allegedly referred to himself to others as the “King of SCP” (St. Charles Parish).
The student openly stated his desire for sex with one of the two defendants for the purpose of revenge, according to the filing.
[We hear from some that any teacher-student sex victimizes the student.
It certainly can.
But some students do view sex with teachers as THEIR victory and "achievement".
And I certainly do not believe that teacher-student sex necessarily causes lifetime harm for the student.]
By Peter Holley
Washington Post, 2016-10-21
She was a 24-year-old substitute teacher.
He was a 17-year-old high school student.
And over the course of an illicit, months-long relationship during the 2015-2016 school year in Cedar Rapids, she admits, the pair had sex “hundreds of times.”
Mary Beth Haglin was charged in July with sexual exploitation by a teacher.
But now, Haglin claims that not only is she innocent of committing any crime, she’s actually the victim in the relationship.
Haglin appeared on the “Dr. Phil” show this week and accused the student of hatching an elaborate plan of romantic seduction, then threatening to “burn her life down” if she ended the relationship.
In recent months, Haglin claims, she’s been fired from her job and forced to work as a stripper using the nom de stage “Bambi.”
“The student twisted my brain into accepting this relationship,” she told Dr. Phil McGraw. “He did so with such intelligence and such an elevated vocabulary that I was completely duped by the whole facade.”
“Many people see him as the victim and me as the perpetrator,” she added. “From a psychological standpoint and from every other standpoint, I feel like I am the victim.
“He did burn my life to the ground.”
Haglin’s trial is scheduled to begin Nov. 14, but she has requested that it be relocated due to the publicity surrounding the case, according to the Associated Press.
The Cedar Rapids Community School District has banned Haglin from employment in the district, but she continued to work as an elementary school substitute teacher near the end of the last school year “because of a miscommunication,” the AP reported.
A spokesperson said the district formally removed Haglin from its “substitute central system” on June 14.
The former substitute teacher told “Inside Edition” in September that her tryst with her student started when he began writing flirtatious messages on Post-it notes that he left on her desk on his way out of class at Washington High School. The student began asking her to get lunch or coffee, she said on “Dr. Phil”; she initially resisted his overtures, she said, but the pair began texting and chatting on Facebook in September 2015.
At the time, she was 23 and the student was 17.
“Trust me, it’s not difficult to be a caring boyfriend,” the student texted Haglin, according to a message revealed by the show. “Especially to someone as magnificent as you.”
Haglin told “Inside Edition” the student even had pet names for his teacher, including “my empress” and “Mrs. Robinson,” a reference to Anne Bancroft’s classic movie role as an older woman who embarks upon an affair with a younger man in “The Graduate” movie.
Over time, Haglin said, the teen’s romantic gestures softened her resolve, and a sexual relationship began last October.
She was attracted to him, she told McGraw, because of “his mind,” which she described as more mature than his age.
“I was completely head over heels,” she told “Inside Edition.”
She said she met the teen nearly every day to have sex in her car, which she parked in a public park. They also visited his parents’ homes, she told “Dr. Phil.”
“We met several times a week, not every time was just to have sex,” she said. “There were times we would sit and talk. I thought in my mind this was some sort of real relationship.”
In Iowa, teachers are prohibited from sexual contact with students until 30 days after graduation, even if the student is at least 18, according to the Des Moines Register.
As their relationship progressed, Haglin said, she eventually sent the student naked pictures, which he shared with other teenagers. Haglin told McGraw that she never expected the student to share the images.
“You have got to be dumber than a box of rocks to share naked pictures with a 17-year-old boy,” the talk-show host said.
“He knew that I was vulnerable,” Haglin responded.
The relationship eventually unraveled when the teacher and student were spotted by other students in a car in June. One witnesses took video of the couple and posted it on Twitter, the Des Moines Register reported.
Haglin told McGraw that when the student began telling his classmates that he was carrying on an inappropriate relationship with her, she tried to break up with him.
At that point, she said, he threatened to tell school officials about the relationship and “light a match and burn down [her] life.”
Haglin said she was too scared to end the relationship, but a parent eventually convinced her to confess and shared that confession with school officials, who launched an investigation.
According to the Des Moines Register, Washington High School’s veteran principal, Ralph Plagman, “was asked to resign after the district determined he had participated in an ineffective initial investigation into accusations about Haglin’s conduct.”
The Gazette of Cedar Rapids reported that “though Plagman and other administrators investigated rumors of Haglin’s inappropriate relationship in February and again in May, no one in the district ever contacted police, district officials have said.”
Haglin told the Gazette that the district wanted to keep her conduct “hush-hush.”
[At school, he was the ‘cool’ teacher. Online, police say, he was a student-seducing porn star.]
“The Cedar Rapids Community School District has concluded its investigation into the events related to Mary Beth Haglin’s inappropriate relationship with a student during the spring 2016 semester at Washington High School,” a district statement said. “Under Iowa’s public records laws, the District is required to keep its investigation, and certain student information and personnel information confidential.”
Unable to find a teaching job and needing income, Haglin told “Dr. Phil” that she has been forced to take a job as a stripper.
“You could wind up having to register as a sex offender for probably 10 years,” McGraw told her. “You need to seriously step back and assess all of the bad decisions that have snowballed here because you are very young and you can so turn this around.”
“This does not have to ruin your life,” he added, before promising to help her find a counselor and a different job.
By Ian Miles Cheong
Heat Street, 2017-01-20 | 7:53 am, January 20, 2017
[This features an impressive slide show
of photos of the female so-called "predators".]
A double standard exists in the way the rapes of young boys are handled in the media, especially when their rapists are sexually attractive.
“It’s every boy’s dream to have sex with the hot teacher in class” is the prevailing narrative, but it’s one that doesn’t line up with reality. Young victims are usually left traumatized and unable to process the ordeal.
A new article on ThoughtCatalog perpetuates the belief that the young boys “seduced” their teachers, calling the 13-year-old victim a “paramour” of the 25-year-old Alexandria Vera. The eighth-grade teacher was sentenced to ten years in prison for aggravated sexual assault—she had sex with him almost daily and their relationship was allegedly even approved of by the boy’s family. At one point, she had even become pregnant, but aborted the fetus before it came to term.
The language and descriptions within the article paint the shocking relationship as one of mutual consent despite the boy’s inability to do so. The piece perpetuates the idea that teenage boys are always up for sex, and that women are always being acted upon.
[As for me,
I recall the circa 1960s teenage boys view
on having sex with such a hot-looking female teacher:
"getting lucky".
As for the sex-drive of some teenage boys,
the instances of them raping their teachers attests to that.
Clearly, it is impossible to generalize about
whether a teenage boy might have lust for
an attractive female teacher.]
...
BY CHAD CALDER
The Advocate (New Orleans), 2017-04-25
BY CHAD CALDER
The Advocate (New Orleans), 2017-04-25 Apr 25, 2017 - 8:00 pm
former student in Destrehan teacher trial
by Michelle Hunter
NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune, 2017-04-25 : on Tuesday, April 25, 2017 at 7:24 PM, updated April 25, 2017 at 10:20 PM
...
The tryst is just one of the details revealed
as Dufresne's trial on two counts of carnal knowledge of a juvenile
got underway in a Jefferson Parish court.
Prosecutors Rachel Africk and Seth Shute discussed the fake Facebook profile they say
Dufresne created to coordinate her multiple sexual encounters.
Defense attorneys Jim Williams and Kim McElwee, meanwhile,
accused the teen of criminal behavior -
including recording a video of himself touching a sleeping Respess with his genitals
and showing the video to his fellow football team members.
...
The teen, who is not being identified by NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune, told the court the relationship began in the late summer of 2014 during his junior year at Destrehan High. Dufresne began messaging him on Facebook using her own personal page one day after he checked out sick.
She'd teased him earlier in the day about being "Mexican," something the teen said he didn't find amusing because he is half-Colombian and half-Caucasian. On Aug. 22, 2014, the teen and Dufresne shared a kiss in her classroom after some flirting, he said.
"Later on that night was the first time that Shelly and I had intercourse," he said.
Dufresne arranged to pick the teen up from his Destrehan home following a scrimmage football game earlier in the evening, he said. The teen testified that Dufresne drove to an area right off Veterans Memorial Boulevard in Metairie by a daiquiri shop.
...
Dufresne created a fake Facebook profile named "Madison Mexicano," with an image of the cartoon character Speedy Gonzalez as the profile photo. The cover photo for the profile included the phrase, "I love Mexican boys," a reference to the teen, Africk said.
Dufresne frequently messaged with the teen using the Madison Mexicano account. The teen gave the court a list of the places where he and Dufresne would rendezvous.
"We had sex in multiple spots: the daiquiri shop in Metairie, off of Carriage Lane (in Destrehan) in a parking lot by some apartments," he said. "We also had sex in her house in Montz. We had sex right off of Brandon Hall (Drive, also in Destrehan), they have another parking lot. We had sex at (a friend's) house in the shed in the back house. We had sex at Rachel Respess' apartment in Kenner."
The teen admitted recording video of Respess as she slept on the couch of her Kenner apartment following the group sex encounter. He also admitted his genitals could be seen in the video.
"It was kind of like proof," he said, testifying that he showed it to some his teammates on the Destrehan High School football team. "I told them about it, but they didn't believe me."
Gossip surrounding Dufresne and the student spread afterwards, finally reaching the ears of school officials, who contacted the Sheriff's Office on Sept. 26, 2014, the prosecutor said. Dufresne and Respess were arrested Oct. 1, 2014.
...
McElwee also suggested the alleged group sex did not occur -- and thereby no crime was committed in Jefferson Parish -- because the teen told authorities he could not achieve an erection, something the teen denied on the witness stand.
Authorities never recovered the alleged video of Respess because the teen admitted deleting it and other photos and text messages out of fear. McElwee argued the teen did so because he knew he had committed the crime of video voyeurism and then shared the lewd video of Respess.
"You know it's a crime to video someone without their permission?" she asked.
The teen denied sharing the video and said he only showed others from his own cell phone.
Noting accusations that the teen threatened to expose Dufresne after she corrected him in class, McElwee implied that he was no victim. The teen testified that he felt could use the sexual relationship to his advantage in her class.
"There have absolutely been no consequences for his behavior," McElwee said
During opening statements, Africk told the court the teen victim wasn't forced to have sex with Dufresne.
"He thought, as a 16-year-old boy, that this was his fantasy, and he thought that this was pretty awesome, and he bragged about it," she said. But she said authorities are not in court because of the boy's decisions.
"We're here today because of Ms. Dufresne's decisions," Africk said. "The carnal knowledge statute places the onus on the adult."
By Michelle Hunter
NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune, 2017-04-26
A judge on Wednesday (April 26) found former Destrehan High School teacher Shelly Dufresne not guilty of allegations she had sex with her 16-year-old English student on two occasions in Jefferson Parish.
Judge Danyelle Taylor, of the 24th Judicial District Court, found Dufresne, 34, not guilty of two counts of carnal knowledge of a juvenile, citing the lack of investigation and evidence and an untrustworthy main witness, the teen at the center of the case.
...
"I do not believe that the threshold has been met by the evidence presented to this court," she said later noting the teen's "braggadocios nature" and his "propensity to lie" created reasonable doubt.
...
The now-19-year-old student in the case took the witness stand with occasionally graphic testimony. Though Taylor found Dufresne's conduct in St. Charles Parish reprehensible, she said she just did not believe him.
"(The teen's) credibility becomes critical. While he is most certainly not on trial here today, his ability and his willingness to tell the truth are paramount issues for this court to consider," she said.
Taylor said she knows the teen is not a completely truthful person.
...
The teen, Taylor said, was not only a willing participant, but broached the subject of sex. The teen, she said, seemed to enjoy having something to hold over Ms. Dufresne.
"This court knows for an absolute fact that (the teen) was willing to lie to the court," Taylor continued, noting how the teen told prosecutors he did not wear watches during testimony about why he could not remember the exact dates and times of the sexual encounters.
At that moment, Taylor said she had in front of her the prosecution's file of Facebook messages and information and there sat a 2016 photo of the teen wearing a watch.
"Why lie about a watch?" she said. "It's possible (the teen) wanted to say what Ms. Africk wanted him to say, and that is a perilous position for him as a witness. This court must wonder whether he gave other statements because people in authorities wanted him to do so.
...
BY CHAD CALDER
The Advocate (New Orleans), 2017-04-26
Judge Danyelle Taylor said she recognizes
the case has “caused public outrage and deservedly so.”
But she said the testimony of the victim lacked credibility
and there wasn't enough evidence to prove beyond a reasonable doubt
that a crime had occurred in Jefferson Parish.
With no physical evidence or cell phone records,
"I am left with the inconsistent and factually inaccurate statements
of a person who I now understand
does not want to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth," she said.
...
By Michelle Hunter
NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune, 2017-04-28
...
During Dufresne's trial, Jefferson Parish Assistant District Attorney Seth Shute said, "If this was a 32-year-old male having consensual sex with a 16-year-old female, he would be under the jail right now."
[Loyola University Law School Professor Dane Ciolino] agreed that the teen's gender - whether fair or not - may have been a factor in the case.
"We very easily could have had a different result had the genders been reversed," he said. "Is there any law on the law books that would say that? Absolutely not. But that's one of those intangibles that matter every day in litigated court cases."
...
NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune, 2017-06-16
One of two former Destrehan High School teachers accused in a sex-abuse investigation involving a 16-year-old student
had her case dropped Friday (June 16) by the Jefferson Parish District Attorney's Office,
court records show.
The dropped charge ends criminal proceedings against the two teachers,
who still face civil litigation associated with the scandal.
...
Less than two months after Dufresne was found not guilty by a Jefferson Parish jury,
District Attorney Paul Connick Jr.'s office quietly dropped a
"failure to report the commission of certain felonies" count against Respess.
...
BY CHAD CALDER
The Advocate, 2017-06-16
Jefferson Parish District Attorney Paul Connick's office on Friday dropped its criminal charge against former Destrehan High School teacher Rachel Respess, who was accused of not informing police about an illicit sexual relationship between a fellow teacher and that woman's student.
...
2018-05-17-New-American-female-teacher-s-having-affairs-with-young-boys-now-a-weekly-occurrence
Female Teachers Having Affairs With Young Boys — Now a Weekly OccurrenceBy Selwyn Duke
New American, 2018-05-17
An overview column from Townhall.com:
2015-04-15-teaching-america-to-tolerate-femaleteacher-sex-with-students
Teaching America to Tolerate Female-Teacher Sex with Studentsby Lee Culpepper
Townhall.com, 2015-04-15
A CBS News summary of 49 (as of 2016-01-17) “Notorious teacher sex scandals”,
all apparently involving female teachers having sex with male students:
“Notorious teacher sex scandals”.
E.g., Kacy Wilson.
And two overview articles:
U.S. cracks down on female teachers who sexually abuse students
by Barbara Goldberg
Reuters.com, 2015-04-21
(Reuters) -
A "Saturday Night Live" skit about
a male student having sex with his female high school teacher
painted the relationship as every teen boy's dream,
but drew a firestorm of criticism on social media.
The reaction to the comedy sketch
reflected a growing view among law enforcement and victims' advocacy groups
that it is no laughing matter when a woman educator preys on her male students.
In U.S. schools last year,
almost 800 school employees were prosecuted for sexual assault,
nearly a third of them women.
The proportion of women facing charges seems to be higher than in years past,
when female teachers often got a pass, said Terry Abbott,\
a former chief of staff at the U.S. Department of Education, who tracked the cases.
This year's numbers are already slightly ahead of last year
with 26 cases of female school employees accused of inappropriate relationships with male students in January
compared to 19 cases the previous January.
Female educators who sexually abuse their students are facing tougher prosecution in part because there are more women police officers.
There is also a greater awareness among prosecutors, judges and the general public
that students who are victimized by an authority figure, regardless of gender,
experience trauma with life-long consequences.
[That is a non sequitor.
People "who are victimized" are, by definition, victims.
But it leaves totally open the question of just why a teenage boy who has a sexual hookup with a teacher
is automatically a victim.
I totally reject that notion.
I was once a teenage boy.
I did not have sex with any of my teachers, never even close, never really thought about it,
but in my estimation,
if that had happened,
the only negative effect on me would have been
a feeling of guilt on my part,
that I had committed a sin.
This would have been the result of my religious upbringing.
But otherwise, I would just have viewed it as a learning experience:
"Oh, so that's what sex is like.
Now I know.
I know adults engage in sex, now I know what they experience."
Also, if the older woman was skillful,
she would have taught me the best ways a man could sexually please women.
I think that is a useful life skill,
something that is certainly not part of my, at least, makeup.
So, yea, I think there can be positive results of teenage boy/older woman sex.
That is not to deny that an older woman in a position of authority can abuse her authority and make the relationship an abusive one,
it is only to say that such sexual relations are not automatically abusive,
at least in my opinion.]
"Law enforcement is increasingly feminized,
and women are much less prone to the old attitude:
'Oh, this is just some kid who got lucky,'"
said David Finkelhor, director of the Crimes Against Children Research Center.
"They recognize the issues involved
and they go after women who violate the statutes."
[Now that is very interesting.
So grown men in law enforcement, who by definition have more in common with younger men than women do,
did not see it as necessarily victimization,
but women in law enforcement, who by definition cannot know what it is like to be a young male,
see this as necessarily victimization?
Talk about crazy!
If that isn't crazy, I don't know what is.
But of course, we know our modern women.
They think they know everything.
Just look how those female senators supported allowing open homosexuals in the military.
The Army, with its institutional knowledge of the trust and leadership issues that arise in leading men in the crucible of combat,
had its views rejected as being based on "bigotry",
rather than a clear-eyed view of the problems that adding sexual attraction
to the issued facing leaders would cause.
But what do women care about what is important?]
Depression, low-self esteem and difficulty maintaining future relationships
are among the long-term consequences that male victims face,
according to experts.
[Ha, ha, ha!
Low self-esteem????
Because, say, an attractive female teacher,
e.g., former AP calculus instructor Erica Ginnetti
(note the enthusiastic audible reaction of the audience to the dancing),
sees you as attractive enough to have sex with????
I say, many teenage boys would see having sex with such a woman
as a giant boost to their self-esteem.
Those who argue otherwise are either ignorant, liars, or both.
The only thing they are expert in is
making false claims based on their supposed expertise.
Again, that is not to deny that it is possible for
a female teacher to abuse her authority,
only to assert, most strongly,
that female teacher/male student sex is not necessarily going to
cause the consequences on the male student asserted above.
One really has to wonder why so many "experts"
take such a gloom and doom view towards sex.
Do they really think that both participants in sexual acts
cannot enjoy the acts?
That it cannot be a win/win situation?
There are two valid arguments for prohibiting or criminalizing sexual acts:
Arguments based on religion and morality, and,
arguments based on harm to the larger society.
But the argument that the young male adult involved
is necessarily "victimized"?
Again, I reject that argument.]
Those problems are sometimes compounded by confusion and guilt
over whether they are actually victims
since their adolescent bodies involuntarily respond to physical contact.
'SEISMIC SHIFTS'
Child abuse experts agree it appears female teachers
are being prosecuted more vigorously than in the past.
The crackdown is the result of "two seismic shifts,"
said Christopher Anderson, executive director of Male Survivor,
the largest U.S. advocacy organization for male sex-crime victims.
[I just (on 2015-04-21) visited the web site for Male Survivor,
http://www.malesurvivor.org/,
and before it would reveal its content,
the first thing their web site displayed
was a full-screen request for donations,
which says, quoting,
MaleSurvivor needs your support!Hmmmm....]
Your tax-deductible donation helps us provide healing resources to millions of male victims of sexual trauma.
Please make a donation now!
Make a Donation! [This was a clickable box.]
To proceed to MaleSurvivor.org, please close this window.
"One is a recognition that it does not matter
who the perpetrator is or what the circumstances are.
A teacher has absolutely no business
engaging in sexual contact with a student,"
Anderson said.
[In all cases?
What if the parents of the young male approve,
viewing it as just part of his growing up,
part of his learning experience,
part of what might be called "sex ed"?]
"The second is a shift in the culture where boys and their parents
are feeling empowered to come forward to say that
something has been done."
In recent weeks,
a Stamford, Connecticut high school English teacher, Danielle Watkins, 32,
whose case was prosecuted by a female state's attorney,
was sentenced to up to 10 years in prison for having sex with an underage male student.
In Michigan, a female judge sentenced Kathryn Ronk, 30,
a Spanish teacher at Bishop Foley High School in Madison Heights,
to up to 15 years in prison for having a sexual relationship with a 15-year-old boy,
saying "the law does not recognize a double standard."
In New Jersey, a female prosecutor said
the most lenient plea deal she would offer Nicole Dufault, 35,
a Columbia High School English teacher accused of
sexual relationships with six teenage boys,
was 15 years in prison.
There are contrary examples, such as Pennsylvania's Erica Ann Ginnetti, 35,
the Lower Moreland High School math teacher
who had sex with a 17-year-old student
and was sentenced to 30 days in jail by a male judge who said,
"What young man would not jump on that candy?"
That was after a female prosecutor reportedly said in court that
the victim's senior year became a nightmare, his grades plunged
and he still struggles with social interactions.
[Interesting.
I can see that happening if the young man really believes
he had done something wrong,
that the sexual act was wrong and that he had been a participant in it,
perhaps a willing one.
In such a case, remorse and guilt, would be very likely,
very possibly resulting in the conditions mentioned above.
("I really enjoyed having sex with her. But it was wrong.
There must be something wrong with me, or her, or both".)
I am merely observing that not all young men would view the act so negatively.]
But the Twitter furor ignited by the April "SNL" skit in which
a male judge fist-bumps a boy who had sex with his "hot" teacher
indicates how attitudes are changing.
"Appalled by the #SNL sketch glorifying sexual abuse of a male student by female teacher.
Sends the worst message &minimizes real experiences,"
tweeted Heather Timmis @hnt108.
An SNL spokesperson declined to comment.
There is no central U.S. reporting system for tracking
female teachers who prey on male students,
according to federal education officials,
but Abbott has been charting the crimes from news coverage.
His research showed that female teachers far more often than male teachers
use social media to lure students,
creating an electronic "paper trail" that may aid prosecutions.
School districts are increasingly moving to ban
private social media contact between teachers and students,
sometimes in an effort to prevent inappropriate relationships.
"Social media enables the behavior to start," Abbott said.
"There is no way that a teacher is going to walk up to a kid in the hallway and say,
'Hey, would you like to see a naked picture of me?' They won't do it.
But they will do that on social media.
It's like it erases what used to be that barrier."
(This version of the story corrects to say Bishop Foley High School, not Madison High School, in 12th paragraph)
(Reporting by Barbara Goldberg; Editing by Scott Malone and Andrew Hay)
In U.S., more female teachers sexually abusing students: news reports
by James Varney
Nola.com, 2015-04-21
[This is brief news article that just references and summarizes the above Reuters story.]
2017-06-30-Fox-McKay-female-teachers-having-sex-with-students-double-standards-lack-awareness
Female teachers having sex with students:Double standards, lack of awareness
by Hollie McKay
Fox News, 2017-06-30
...
Married Kentucky teacher Lindsey Jarvis, 27, ignited a media maelstrom this month after being charged with rape, sodomy and unlawful transaction with a student. Also this month,
31-year-old Connecticut teacher, Laura Ramos, was removed from her job at Central High School over allegations of sexually assaulting a special education student.
Loryn Barclay, 24, was arrested Sunday and faces charges as a result of an alleged relationship with a boy while she worked as a substitute teacher.
...
Myriam S. Denov, an associate professor in the School of Social Work at Montreal’s McGill University, says cultural stereotypes about women have obscured the awareness of the frequency of female sexual offending.
“While the prevalence rates of female sex offending are small when compared to rates of male sex offending, there is evidence to suggest that sexual abuse by females may be under-recognized,” she says in one of her books, “Perspectives on Female Sex Offending: A Culture of Denial.”
There is a great deal of data that points to “a widespread denial of women as potential sexual aggressors that could work to obscure the true dimensions of the problem,” she writes in the book.
According to the Center for Sex Offender Management,
a project operated by the U.S. Department of Justice,
females account for around 10 percent of all sex crimes reported to authorities.
However,
a much higher percentage – over 30 percent – of all teacher-student sexual offenses
are estimated to have been perpetrated by females.
In the latest available statistics, in 2014,
just under 800 school employees were prosecuted for student sex crimes –
around one-third female.
...
“Unfortunately, it is still socially acceptable for the male student to become victimized,” said California-based criminal defense attorney, Leo Terrell.
“Therefore the sex crime was welcomed by the male victim because he had the physically strength to prevent said crime.
Such a pre-historic perspective misses the mark.”
[ "pre-historic" Please.
This just proves how ahistorical today's value systems are in many ways.
Will those "modern", "enlightened" value systems lead to a more successful society? No way, in my opinion.
Just more, more, more customers for the therapists.
How many of today's women need "therapy" just to get through life?
IMO they need therapy because
they have been sold such a bill of goods
by the feminists, by today's culture, and in some cases by their parents.
BTW, when I was growing up in the 1950s, any mention of "therapy" referred to physical therapy.
The creation of this whole economic segment of economy-sapping (mental) therapists
is a pathology, one designed to benefit the demographics which make up
most of the therapist occupation, IMO.]
Jennifer Fichter
2014-04-15-TBO-polk-teacher-accused-of-sex-with-17-year-old-student
Police: Polk teacher had sex with teen, aborted pregnancyTampa Bay Times (TBO), 2014-04-15
A 29-year-old Polk County teacher was arrested Monday night on charges of having sex with a 17-year-old student during a four-month relationship that involved a pregnancy and abortion, Lakeland police said.
Jennifer Christine Fichter, an English teacher at Central Florida Aerospace Academy, told the boy’s mother that she was in love with her son and admitted to several sexual encounters, police said.
The relationship began in November and the sex occurred during early morning hours in Fichter’s Toyota pickup truck, according to a police affidavit.
The teen told detectives he and the teacher met for sex three times in the parking lot of a Lakeland apartment complex and three times at a location off New Tampa Highway. He also said they had sex four times outside the city in Polk and Hillsborough, and those incidents are under investigation in those counties, Lakeland police said.
On Jan. 27, the teen’s mother became suspicious when she noticed her son was not home at 5 a.m. and he lied about his whereabouts, police said. She began to review his text messages and discovered texts from two names, and one discussed an “age difference,” police said.
The mother confronted her son, who admitted both names were used by Fichter, police said. The mother informed police of the relationship Monday.
On Monday night, the mother agreed to make a controlled, recorded phone call to Fichter for investigators. During the call, Fichter admitted she became pregnant with the teen’s child and had an abortion, the affidavit said.
Fichter also said she was in love with the student, had sex with him 20 to 30 times, wanted to maintain the relationship and did not regret her actions, according the affidavit.
Fichter faces six counts of unlawful sexual activity with a minor. She was arrested at her Davenport home and booked at the Polk County Jail.
Central Florida Aerospace Academy, 4141 Medulla Road, is a Polk public school career academy that prepares students for the aviation and aeronautics industries. It is an extension of Kathleen High School.
2015-04-03-TBO-former-polk-teacher-pleads-guilty-to-sex-charges
Former Polk teacher pleads guilty to sex chargesTampa Bay Tribune (TBO), 2015-04-03
Former teacher Jennifer Fichter has pleaded guilty to all Polk County charges of having sex with a minor.
Fichter, 30, was arrested last year over accusations that she had sex with three students.
On Thursday, she pleaded guilty to 37 counts of unlawful sexual contact with a minor.
She is scheduled to be sentenced July 2. She faces up to 15 years in prison per count.
[No plea agreement?]
...
2015-07-03-TBO-former-polk-teacher-sentenced-today-for-child-sex
Former Polk teacher gets 22 years for child sexTampa Bay Tribune (TBO), 2015-07-03
The Polk County teacher who pleaded guilty to 37 counts of unlawful sexual contact with a minor received 22 years in prison this afternoon.
Jennifer Fichter, 30, faced up to 15 years in prison per count when she was sentenced in Polk County Circuit Court. She has 30 days to appeal.
“We hope this sentence helps you change and become a different person so when you come out,
you’re not the person you were before,” Judge Glenn Shelby told her.
...
2016-11-29-Fox13-judge-refuses-to-reduce-sentence
Judge refuses to reduce teacher's sex-with-students sentenceFox 13 News, 2016-11-29
[The story includes a video of an emotional courthouse hallway confrontation
between, evidently, two mothers, of Jennifer Fichter and of one of her male accusers.]
Shelley Dufresne, Rachel Respess Three Way
I just want to say that,
if when I was 16 I had an experience such as that described below
with teachers such as those,
I would have been the happiest boy on earth,
viewing the experience as a step forward into adulthood
and a wonderful chance to learn about sex from caring teachers.
So am I guilty too?
Or just too young, at that age, to be able to give consent.
Does such activity make everyone involved guilty?
If so, just who is the victim?
Are boys really damaged by such events?
(By the way, note that
Ms. Dufresne, 32, is the daughter of St. Charles district court Judge Emile St. Pierre,
and also is currently married and the mother of three children,
so we are not exactly talking about the dregs of society here.)
(The Kenner report says the incident started at 9 p.m. and ended at 6 a.m.)
2014-10-01-NOTP-destrehan_high_school_teachers
Destrehan High School teachers accused of group sex with student at Kenner apartmentby Helen Freund
Nola.com | The Times-Picayune, 2014-10-01
...
[Kenner police chief] Glaser said the two women were friends,
and both had been teachers of the student.
Respess was his English teacher last year,
Dufresne his English instructor until this week, the chief said.
Authorities said they were tipped to the allegations on Friday,
when school system officials told the St. Charles Parish Sheriff's Office that
a male student was "bragging to other students
that he was having a sexual relationship with teachers."
Detectives interviewed the student,
who said the encounter was consensual
and gave the officers an account of the events, Glaser said.
Notwithstanding his statement, the legal age of consent in Louisiana is 17.
...
2014-10-02-NOTP-destrehan_high_school_teacher
Destrehan High School teacher Shelley Dufresne had 'prior sexual encounters' with student, police sayby Helen Freund
Nola.com | The Times-Picayune, 2014-10-02
In the case of two Destrehan High School teachers
accused of having group sex with a student,
some new details emerged Thursday with the release of booking records on
Shelley Dufresne, 32, and Rachel Respess, 24.
Among the assertions in the brief reports filed by Kenner police:
- Dufresne had sexual contact with the student more than once
before their alleged ménage à trois Sept. 12
[September 12 was Ms. Dufresne's 32nd birthday,
so this ménage à trois amounted to
a birthday present to herself]
with teacher Rachel Respess, 24, at Respess' Kenner apartment.
The police use of the plural "prior sexual encounters"
suggests two or more earlier incidents,
whereas the public record to date had established
only one other allegation of sex between Dufresne and the student. - Dufresne "enticed and transported" the teen to Respass' apartment,
with the purpose of engaging in sexual acts,
and she "approached (Respess) in order to proposition her into joining the sexual encounter."
Respess told detectives she was aware that
Dufresne was bringing the boy to her apartment for sex. - At the apartment, the boy told police, he had sex with both women.
While Respess was having intercourse with him, Dufresne
"began intimately kissing (Respess)
in an attempt to arouse all parties involved,
all who were complete(ly) disrobed."
The booking record was released a day after Kenner police arrested the two teachers on charges of carnal knowledge of a juvenile, indecent behavior with a juvenile and contributing to the delinquency of a juvenile. Each was released on a $7,000 bond.
Dufresne earlier had been arrested in a separate incident, for allegedly having sex with the boy on an unspecified date in September at a home in Montz, where she lives. The boy was student in her English class, and had been a student in Respess' English class in 2013-14. The two teachers were friends.
The boy, now 17, told investigators he consented to sex with his teachers. At age 16, however, he was a juvenile under Louisiana law, with limited -- if any -- ability in the eyes of the courts to consent to sex with an adult. Even between student ages of 17 and 21, Louisiana law forbids sexual encounters between educators and students.
Kenner Police Chief Mike Glaser said that Respess gave investigators a statement where she "almost" confessed to having sex with the student but did not go into "intricate details."
"She gave a similar account of his story," Glaser said. "But she stopped short of a total confession."
Kenner police have not received a statement from Dufresne.
Authorities said
they first learned of the boy's special relationship with his English instructors
when school system officials told the St. Charles Parish Sheriff's Office that
he was "bragging to other students"
of having a sex with teachers."
Glaser said investigators have "no doubt" that the women had sexual intercourse with the student --
and that they are investigating a rumor that the encounter was recorded on video.
Both teachers have been suspended from their jobs without pay, a spokeswoman for St. Charles public schools said.
2015-10-10-DailyMail-all-boys-want-brag
'All boys want to brag, but he didn't expect it to come to this:' The 16-year-old who had threesome with his two teachers is crushed they could now go to prison, says grandfatherBy Martin Gould In Kenner, Louisiana for MailOnline
Daily Mail (UK), 2015-10-10
The teenage boy at the center of the Louisiana school threesome scandal is devastated that
his bragging has ruined the promising careers of two teachers.
'He is really down about it right now,'
the high school junior's grandfather told MailOnline in an exclusive interview.
'All boys that age want to brag about what they are doing.
He didn't expect it would come to this.'
...
'He feels really bad,' said the boy's grandfather. 'These women have families and he knows how terrible it is for them. He knows they will never be able to teach again and could very well go to prison.
'He just wishes the whole thing had never happened. It's a shocking thing — a real shock for all of us — when you have teachers who should be educating doing this instead.'
MailOnline is not identifying the boy who turned 17 just days after the alleged ménage à trois as he is still a minor.
The boy is said to have had an ongoing affair with Dufresne, his 11th grade English teacher at Destrehan, a sleepy commuter town west of New Orleans.
According to police she picked him up after a Friday Night Lights high school football game on September 12 and drove him to Respess's apartment in Kenner, Louisiana — where she had only moved two weeks previously after living with her parents.
Respess, a pretty blonde who used the name 'CajunBabe' for her email addresses, decided she needed freedom away from her parents' upscale 3,900-sq. ft. home in Destrehan and moved 12 miles into a cramped apartment with peeling paint.
'She only moved in at the end of August,' a neighbor who would identify himself only as 'Will,' told MailOnline.
'There was a lot of activity going on in that short time.'
'All sorts of people you wouldn't expect were coming and going,' he added.
Dufresne, the daughter of a local judge, is separately charged with having sex with the teen in the small oil town of Montz, 25 miles west of New Orleans, where she lives with her oil company manager husband Wes and their three young children.
...
2015-04-09-NOLA-teacher-Shelley-Dufresne-admits-sex-with-student
Destrehan High teacher Shelley Dufresne admits sex with studentby Brett Duke
Times-Picayune, 2015-04-09
Photo caption: Former Destrehan High School teacher Shelley Dufresne leaves the St. Charles Parish Courthouse in Hahnville on Thursday, April 9, 2015
(Photo by Brett Duke, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune )
Former Destrehan High School teacher Shelley Dufresne pleaded guilty to obscenity Thursday (April 9), admitting in court that she had sex with a 16-year-old student. The plea lets her and the student avoid a public trial, and allows her to bypass registering as a sex offender and serving three years in prison.
She must spend 90 days at an inpatient mental health facility, serve three years of active probation and pay a $1,000 fine. If she fails to complete the court-approved mental health program by the end of August, she must report to the St. Charles Parish jail Sept. 1 to serve any days for which she has not received credit, Judge Anne Simon said during the plea hearing at the Hahnville courthouse.
Dufresne also agreed to surrender her teaching license. With the parents of her former student sitting in the front row of the courtroom, Dufresne admitted to having "consensual sexual intercourse with a juvenile," as detailed in the carnal knowledge law.
"Is it true?" Simon asked Dufresne. "Yes, ma'am," she replied.
Dufresne left the courthouse at 11:35 a.m. with her mother. She and her attorney, Deanne Williams, would not comment to a reporter.
The student's parents, his mother appearing angry as she stared at Dufresne, also would not speak with reporters. They were accompanied by an attorney who sat with them during the hearing.
Dufresne, a 32-year-old Montz resident who is married and has three children, was one of two Destrehan High teachers arrested last fall on charges of having sex with the same student. Their arrests touched off a flurry of gossip and speculation in Destrehan and online, particularly over the notion of women in authority positions seducing -- or molesting -- an under-aged boy, and contributed to Louisiana's reputation for inappropriate teacher-student relationships.
Her plea came during a status hearing in 29th Judicial District Court. It was accepted by Simon, the retired New Iberia jurist whom the Louisiana Supreme Court appointed to handle the case after the three local judges -- including Dufresne's father, Judge Emile St. Pierre -- stepped aside.
Authorities say Dufresne and the male student had sex between Aug. 22 and Sept. 27 at a home in Montz. They have not specified the date of the crime, or whether it happened at Dufresne's house.
Her initial charge, carnal knowledge with a juvenile, remains intact, according to the plea agreement that her attorney reached with prosecutors. The district attorney's office filed a new bill of information Thursday, charging her with the additional offense of obscenity.
She pleaded guilty to obscenity, and Simon deferred a 3-year prison sentence on the carnal knowledge charge. If Dufresne completes the terms of her probation for obscenity, prosecutors will dismiss the carnal knowledge charge, Simon said.
District Attorney Joel Chaisson II, who was in court during the plea hearing, released a statement saying, "I want to thank my special prosecutor, Julie Cullen, for her efforts to reach a fair resolution of the case and to secure a felony guilty plea, thereby sparing the juvenile victim in this matter from having to testify at a public trial." He said carnal knowledge carried a potential 10-year prison sentence and mandatory registration as a sex offender. If Dufresne breaks the rules of her probation, Chaisson said, he will prosecute her on the carnal knowledge offense.
Chaisson said the victim's parents were consulted and that they "expressed their support for this resolution of the case."
Simon, in discussing the plea agreement, said she was advised that it is the "usual" treatment for first-time offenders in St. Charles Parish. Since prosecutors filed the carnal knowledge charge in November, Simon has presided over several status hearings. However, in recent weeks, there have been rumblings behind the scenes that plea discussions were underway.
Thursday's session was scheduled to be another status hearing. It unfolded in a courtroom in which the constant racket of a jackhammer, from courthouse construction, reverberated and even led Simon to pause. "Is there any way we can stop that?" the judge asked. "No? Okay, I'll just talk louder."
Separately, Dufresne and Rachel Respess, 24, are accused of having group sex with the student at Respess' Kenner apartment on Sept. 12, Dufresne's birthday. That case is pending in Jefferson Parish, where the district attorney's office has not made a decision on charging the two women.
The boy was a student in Dufresne's English class last fall, and had been a student in Respess' English class in 2013-14. Now 17, he told St. Charles Parish sheriff's deputies that he had sex with the teachers at Respess' apartment after the Destrehan Wildcats-Helen Cox Cougars football game. The Kenner Police Department report says the crime began at 9 p.m. and ended at 6 a.m.
The report indicates that the women consumed alcohol but doesn't say how much or what kind. It doesn't indicate whether the student consumed alcohol or identify him, as he was a juvenile at the time as well as a sex-crime victim. NOLA.com|The Times-Picayune's practice is not to name victims of sex crimes.
Although investigators say the boy said he consented to sex, he was a minor at the time. The general age of consent in Louisiana is 17. However, state law also forbids teachers to have sexual relationships with students younger than 21.
At the time of the Kenner arrests, police said they were investigating reports that someone had recorded video of the activity on a phone. The results of a forensic test of a phone have never been made public.
In Hahnville, Dufresne was scheduled to stand trial May 20. Her attorney gave prosecutors medical records during an hour-long private conference with the judge in February. Dufresne has been under house arrest since she bonded out of jail, and has been allowed to leave her home to attend daily mental health appointments. According to the court records, she attends outpatient therapy sessions four hours each weekday for treatment of depression and mood disorder at River Oaks Hospital in Elmwood.
In November, she sought an adjustment in her house arrest conditions to help her children, ages 3, 5 and 7, to school and doctor's appointments in Baton Rouge and New Orleans. The motion stated that Dufrene's oldest child has been diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder and required therapy twice a week: Tuesdays in Baton Rouge for occupational therapy from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. and Thursdays in New Orleans for physical therapy from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m.
Dufresne and Respess were suspended without pay after their arrests.
2015-09-01-NOLA-Dufresne-charge-changed-from-misdemeanor-to-felony
Ex-teacher Shelley Dufresne again admits having sex with studentBy Littice Bacon-Blood
NOLA.com, 2015-09-01
Former Destrehan High School teacher Shelley Dufresne returned to court in St. Charles Parish on Tuesday (Sept. 1) to plead guilty once again to a felony obscenity charge for having sex with a 16-year-old student. Dufresne, 32, had pleaded guilty April 9 to the same charge and received a deferred prison sentence.
She had to reaffirm the original terms and conditions of her plea agreement because District Attorney Joel Chaisson II's office on April 10 filed an amended bill of information charging her with a misdemeanor, although she received a felony sentence. During Tuesday's proceeding, Chaisson's office submitted yet another amended bill charging Dufresne with violating Louisiana Revised Statute 14:106 (A)(1), felony obscenity, instead of R.S. 14:106 (A)(7)(a), the misdemeanor of April 10.
Chaisson has said the April 10 charge was an attempt to adhere to the April 9 plea agreement that let Dufresne avoid jail and not registering as a sex offender. Her April 9 plea required her to register, although that was not included as a condition of probation imposed by Judge Anne Simon.
The April 10 hearing on the misdemeanor was conducted privately in the judge's chamber, not in open court, and was criticized by Metropolitan Crime Commission President Rafael Goyeneche III. He said it appeared to give preferential treatment to Dufresne, daughter of Judge Emile St. Pierre of the 29th Judicial District Court. Chaisson denied that, saying neither party realized April 10 that the charge had been changed to a misdemeanor.
After that hearing, Dufresne's attorney, Deanne Williams, filed a motion to correct the error. "All parties involved were under the impression and intention that defendant had pled to a felony, with felony supervision and specific felony probation requirements," she wrote.
During Tuesday's proceeding, Dufresne was required again to acknowledge that she had sex with a 16-year-old boy, referred to by the initials "C.P.," and to plead guilty to felony obscenity. Under the agreement, if Dufresne violates any condition of her probation, she could be prosecuted for carnal knowledge of a juvenile, which carries a possible 10-year prison sentence and registration as a sex offender.
Simon a retired judge from New Iberia, resentenced Dufresne to a deferred three-year prison term, three years of active probation and a $1,000 fine. The judge said Dufresne has already completed the required 90-day in-patient mental health treatment and surrendered her teaching certificate.
Dufresne had sex with the student in 2014 at a home in Montz, where she lives. Barring a probation violation, Tuesday's hearing wraps up the matter in St. Charles Parish.
However, Jefferson Parish prosecutors have yet to decide whether Dufresne and another former Destrehan High teacher, Rachel Respess, will face charges there. The two are accused of having group sex with the same student at Respess' Kenner apartment last year.
2015-11-10-Philly-The_English_teacher__She_s_37__has_a_family_-_and_had_sex_with_a_student
The English teacher:She's 37, has a family - and had sex with a student
by Jason Nark
Philadelphia Daily News, 2015-11-10
...
A 2004 study commissioned by the U.S. Department of Education suggested that the number of female offenders may be higher than statistics show - that there may be more situations like that of the English teacher, because "males have been socialized to believe they should be flattered or appreciative of sexual interest from a female."
[Yo, Department of Education:
That may be the consequence of something much more fundamental and biological than "socialization".
But you wouldn't expect the PC scuzoids to recognize that, would you?]
...
But stories of female teachers prosecuted for having sex with male students - notably Debra Lafave and Mary Kay Letourneau - increasingly have grabbed headlines.
They set online comment pages ablaze
and often bring out the worst in locker-room humor.
["the worst"?
Maybe that "locker-room humor" expresses reality far better than
the pure crap coming from some of the degreed class
such as the "therapist" quoted below.]
Double standards have been cited in the prosecution of male and female teachers, and in the way they are described in police and media accounts. Van Halen wrote a song about it. It's a popular theme for pornographers.
"There's a tendency for society to minimize,
a sense of denial that the male victim is actually hurt,"
said Stuart Bassman, a Cincinnati-based therapist
who has worked with victims of sexual assault
and testified in cases involving teachers and students.
"It's not consensual and it's not a relationship."
["It"?
When you say that, you are making a universal assertion,
about all such relations.
In my opinion,
that statement abuses the definitions of "consensual" and "relationship".
Sure, if you define those words narrowly enough, that statement is true.
But it's a matter of how you define those words.
To use the word "victim" is to prejudge the relation.
To assert that ALL male students who have sex with their teachers are "actually hurt"
is, I think, absurd.
If that were the case,
why would the "locker-room humor" cited above
be what it is:
Often, a wish that other male students could have "gotten some".
Indeed, if having sex with female teachers is so awful for the male,
why do other men describe it as "gotten some"?
Who is the seeker, and who is the giver?
If this guy (with a Ph.D. or M.D.) thinks
male students cannot get something positive from
having sex with an attractive female teacher,
he's either crazy (yes, crazy) or, maybe,
a raving male homosexual who is unable to view heterosexual sex
as benefiting the male.
In either case, he is only showing his sickness.
It's really a shame that such sickos are taken as authorities by the court system.
I am not denying that some male student / female teacher sex
can be very non-consensual, abusive, and harmful to the male student.
I am merely asserting that such relations are not necessarily so.
And as to his being an "expert witness",
I wonder if there aren't people with equal credentials
who will take the opposite view to his.]
...
Even though several people - including a therapist and a probation officer - had advised her against it, the English teacher spoke with the People Paper for two hours at a diner outside Philadelphia.
She spoke candidly about her struggles, about accepting that she was the perpetrator and her student the victim, and about how she's trying to build a future with those incidents forever etched in her past.
[Let me insert here an earlier part of the article,
where she spoke about the relation:]
"There was this element of the fantastical, of leaving your life for a little while: the mopping, and the cleaning and taking care of children. You have this boy telling you you're Aphrodite, that you're beautiful," the 37-year-old woman said.
"The lines got blurred. I've had boys hit on me before. It took a lot for me to slip into that. It wasn't just like I decided I'm going to do this 'cause I'm attracted to this boy."
[End of insertion from earlier part.
The reason I inserted that here
was to demonstrate that it is not necessarily clear
that she was "the perpetrator".
Is it possible that teenage boys "hit on" their teachers?
Is it possible that they can be very persuasive in trying to talk their teachers into having sex?
Sorry, doctors,
I can certainly imagine a teenage boy fantasizing about having sex with a gorgeous teacher.
And if his fantasies were realized,
it is literally impossible for me to see how he is NECESSARILY a victim.]
"It definitely wasn't about power, that's for sure. I think it's about vulnerability," she said. "There was a vulnerable situation there. I never thought of a student that way, ever. I should have recognized it, teaching high school all these years. It's ridiculous that I never realized it."
[The educational system may have very good reasons for prohibiting sex between male students and female teachers.
But I believe asserting that such relations automatically victimize the male is wrong.]
...
"It scares me that in 10 years he will come to me and want answers," she said. "I propelled him into an adult world, into adult situations, before he was ready for it. It's just bulls---."
[It seems to me that there is a certain circularity to such assertions.
As to sex being restricted by age,
I wonder if people who make such statements
are aware of the age of marriage of many of the men and women
in the lines of the royal houses of Britain, Hanover, and Prussia,
for example.
See, e.g., the genealogical table in the appendices to
Donald Burrows, Handel, Second Edition (Amazon, OUP).
Ages in mid-teens are not uncommon.
Somehow those teen brides and grooms went on to being highly successful monarchs and consorts
of their various kingdoms and electorates.
Are we to believe they were victimized?
Or are we to observe that the reality is that standards have changed.]
2015-12-09-NOLA-still_no_decision_on_jefferson
Still no decision on Jefferson Parish charges in Destrehan teacher sex caseby Michelle Hunter
NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune, 2015-12-09
[Among the comments to this article:]
by Amy2211
There was actually a guy who went to school with me who was doing it with a female teacher.
She wanted to stop and he basically threatened to blackmail her if she quit.
So she had no choice.
Later I heard she and her husband moved to Mississippi to get away from this guy.
If the young man doing it with Rachel and Shelly had been smarter
he could have kept this thing going for a long time.
When he blabbed it to his friends it was all over.
He should have kept quiet and threatened to turn them in to the authorities if they stopped doing him.
by nolaface
@Amy2211 What is wrong with you?
You are suggesting it would be better if he were to resort to sexual extortion?
Is Euric Cain posting from jail?
by Amy2211
@nolaface @Amy2211 It would have ended more happily for all 3 of them, definitely.
Happiness is sometimes overlooked in our rush for justice.
They could still be teaching and they would not be in risk of going to jail.
A better solution.
2015-12-14-NOLA-destrehan_teachers_charged_in_Jefferson_Parish
Jefferson Parish charges 2 former Destrehan teachers in juvenile sex caseBy Ben Myers
NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune, 2015-12-14
Two former Destrehan High School teachers were formally charged in Jefferson Parish on Monday (Dec. 14), more than a year after an alleged sexual encounter with a 16-year-old student in Kenner. Authorities previously described the incident as group sex, but a bill of information Monday did not accuse one of the teachers, 25-year-old Rachel Respess of a sex crime.
Shelley Dufresne, 33, is charged with two counts of carnal knowledge of a juvenile, while Respess is charged with failing to report the commission of a felony.
"They are not alleging she had sex with a juvenile. We will at this point plead not guilty and see what happens down the road," said Respess' attorney, Jeffrey Smith. "I'm sure there will be a pre-trial, there will be some discussion and we will deal with it in the appropriate fashion at the appropriate time"
Respess and Duefresne were both initially charged with one count of carnal knowledge of a juvenile and indecent behavior with a juvenile. It wasn't immediately clear Monday evening why Connick's 14-month review of the case resulted in the different charges.
Dufresne pleaded guilty in April to an obscenity charge stemming from her month-long sexual relationship with the student. The encounter with Respess allegedly occurred on Sept. 12, 2014 at Respess' apartment in Kenner.
Dufresne was sentenced on the St. Charles charge to a deferred three-year prison sentence, three years probation, a $1,000 fine and 90-day inpatient mental health treatment.
The three-year-old law Respess is charged with violating provides up to a year in jail for failing to report "any homicide, rape or sexual abuse of a child."
"They are very serious allegations, and they involve reporting," Smith said, adding that he needs to further research the statute. "Obviously, I'm happy she was not charged with a sex crime."
2015-12-14-theadvocate-former-destrehan-teachers-charged-in-student-sex-case-in-jefferson-parish
Two ex-Destrehan teachers accused of having sex with student charged in Jefferson ParishBY CHAD CALDER
The Advocate (Louisiana), 2015-12-14
Two former Destrehan High School teachers accused last year of having sex with a 16-year-old male student were formally charged by the Jefferson Parish District Attorney’s Office on Monday.
Shelley Dufresne, 33, was charged with two counts of carnal knowledge of a juvenile, while Rachel Respess, 25, faces one count of failure to report the commission of certain felonies.
The two were charged in a bill of information that indicates there were actually two encounters in Jefferson Parish in 2014, one in August and another in September.
Dufresne and Respess were arrested after the second incident, in which authorities said the student was taken to Respess’ Kenner apartment for a three-way sexual encounter on Sept. 12.
Dufresne also was arrested in St. Charles Parish on allegations she had sex with the student on separate occasions there.
Respess’ attorney, Jeffery Smith, has said in previous interviews that Respess was intoxicated in her home when Dufresne and the boy showed up, and that Respess “never entered into consensual sex with this young man.”
Smith said Monday that Respess will plead not guilty.
“I appreciate all the work that’s gone into this investigation,” he said. “We are entering a plea of not guilty. I’m glad she wasn’t charged with committing a sex crime.”
Dufresne’s attorney could not be reached for comment.
The charges against Dufresne each carry a maximum sentence of 10 years in jail and a $5,000 fine.
The charge against Respess carries a maximum sentence of one year in jail and a $500 fine.
Dufresne agreed to a plea deal earlier this year in St. Charles Parish that will allow her to avoid any prison time there or having to register as a sex offender.
The Jefferson case was allotted to Judge Danyelle Taylor of 24th Judicial District Court in Gretna.
2015-12-16-NOLA-Dufresne-Respess-3_surprises_in_charges_filed
3 surprises in the new Destrehan teacher-student sex chargesBy Littice Bacon-Blood
NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune, 2015-12-16
Jefferson Parish prosecutors took more than a year after their arrests to file charges against Shelley Dufresne, 33, and Rachel Respess, 25, the former Destrehan High School teachers accused by police of having sex with a 16-year-old student.
When they did so Monday (Dec. 14), the charges contained at least three surprises:
1. Respess not charged with sex crime --
When Kenner police arrested Respess on Oct. 1, 2014,
Chief Michael Glaser said investigators had "no doubt"
both women had sex with the student at Respess' apartment,
and that Respess had "almost" confessed to the deed.
Glaser said Respess corroborated what the student told investigators about the sexual encounter.
Both Dufresne and Respess were booked with carnal knowledge of a juvenile.
Respess' defense attorney, Jeffrey Smith, has maintained his client's innocence,
and he cryptically stated earlier this year that she never had "consensual sex" with the student.
Now the only formal charge against Respess is failing to report the commission of a felony.
2. Dufresne charged with two sex incidents in Jefferson --
Dufrene's initial arrest record provided by Kenner police
indicated only one sexual encounter with the student,
on the night of Sept. 12, 2014, at Respess' apartment.
A booking report released by Kenner police the day after their arrests
seemed to intimate a second incident in Jefferson Parish,
but authorities would not elaborate on it.
Now the bill of information against Dufresne cites two sexual encounters with the student:
Aug. 22 and Sept. 19 of last year.
It doesn't specify a location for either.
(Dufresne has already pleaded guilty in a separate case
to having sex with the same student in St. Charles Parish.)
For Respess, the Jefferson charge of failing to report a felony
says she committed that crime between Aug. 22 and Sept. 19.
3. No other charges --
When arrested in Kenner, both teachers were booked not only with carnal knowledge
but with indecent behavior with a juvenile and contributing to his delinquency.
Investigators said alcohol had been consumed during the Sept. 12 gathering at Respess' apartment,
but prosecutors didn't charge the teachers with that.
[Among the comments to the above article were:]
by Leigh Silvestri
@tina_gaspard I am not making excuses I went to school with Rachel and was taught by Shelley.
Shelley was Rachel and I [presumably "my"] teacher she was also Rachel's cheerleading coach.
Rachel may have been her colleague but she was a mentor and teacher 1st.
Things with that situation may not always be black and white.
Maybe they have been doing this since Rachel was in school
and Shelley has kept her in that state since then.
by southernroads
I have heard people blaming the student,
a 16 year old male would have sex with a tree stump.
2015-12-24-ijreview-the-7-most-scandalous-teacher-student-sex-affairs-of-2015
10 Unbelievably Sleazy Teacher Sex Scandals of 2015By Lawrence Bonk
Independent Journal Review, 2015-12-24
2016
2016-04-28-NOLA-civil_lawsuit_revealed
New details of Destrehan teacher sex abuse added by suitby Danielle Dreilinger
NOLA, 2016-04-28
Destrehan High School teacher Shelley Dufresne moved in fast. From the first day of the 2014-15 academic year, she targeted a 16-year-old boy in her English class, flirting with him every day. When he got sick and had to stay home, she contacted him on social media, "ostensibly to determine if he was feeling better" but in reality to establish a "close personal and emotional relationship with her student."
Soon, she was sleeping with the student, more than 40 times in 36 days.
[Guess that's one woman who doesn't dislike heterosexual sex,
or need drugs to help her libido.]
Those are among the new allegations in a previously unreported lawsuit filed by the student and his parents against Dufresne, fellow teacher Rachel Respess and the St. Charles Parish public school system. Filed Aug. 11 and amended Feb. 25, the suit is pending in 29th Judicial District Court.
...
The lawsuit adds details -- unproven -- to the criminal cases. It says Dufresne treated the boy as her favorite in class, "encouraging (him) to believe that responding to Ms. Dufresne's attention and advances would impact his grade." To cement the relationship, she offered to take him home from football practices and games.
Only two or three weeks into the term, the suit says, Dufresne kissed the student in her classroom during school hours. They began having sex Aug. 22, 2014, continuing through Sept. 27, more than 40 times in all.
Respess had learned of the improper relationship
but did not report it to the authorities or try to protect the victim, the suit says.
Instead, she offered up her Kenner apartment for sex after a football game,
eventually joining in the act, according to the suit.
Police say the teachers engaged in group sex with the student at Respess' apartment on Sept. 12.
Although police booked Respess with a sex crime, prosecutors did not file one against her.
Both teachers were arrested in October 2014. After the crimes became public, the suit says, Dufresne "made disparaging comments about (the victim) to third parties on social media causing him embarrassment and humiliation."
...
2016-04-28-NOLA-taxpayers-may-be-liable
In Destrehan teacher sex case, taxpayers might be on the hookby Danielle Dreilinger
NOLA, 2016-04-28
2016-04-28-Advocate-civil-suit-alleges-teacher-initiated-sexual-relationship-with-destrehan-student
Ex-Destrehan teacher Shelley Dufresne, student allegedly had sex 40-plus times,per newly revealed suit
BY CHAD CALDER
The Advocae, 2016-04-28
...
The suit says Dufresne began flirting with the boy during the 2014-15 school year, even reaching out to him on social media when he was out of school sick.
That contact, the suit says, was ostensibly to determine if he was feeling better, but she began contacting him regularly, fostering a close personal and emotional relationship with him.
Eventually, the suit says, she kissed him in her classroom during school hours. The relationship soon became sexual, and the two had intercourse more than 40 times in the ensuing weeks. Dufresne performed oral sex on the boy as well, the suit says.
The petition says that when fellow teacher Rachel Respess, 25, found out about the relationship, she did not turn in her co-worker and in fact offered to let her use Respess’ Kenner apartment.
“She ultimately joined the abuse by having sex with (the boy) and Ms. Dufresne in her apartment following a Destrehan High School football game,” the suit says.
...
The suit claims the boy and his parents suffered mental anguish, emotional distress, humiliation and damage to their reputation and family relationships.
It says the boy’s ability to maintain healthy relationships was damaged, the parents lost wages and career opportunities, and both incurred costs related to counseling and treatment.
...
The School Board has filed a response contending the time periods referred to in the suit are too vague, that the boy should be the main plaintiff because he is now of age and that the boy’s parents are not entitled to many of the claims for which they seek damages.
[Among the comments to this story were:]
John Smith
The lawsuit seems more for the parents than the child. If they weren't so hungry for money or attention they would allow the child to become grown and file the suti on his behalf. Now this kid had sex with two women at least 40 times and then decided to come clean, these women really need to be sued... reply if you like...
John Talluto [to John Smith]
Agreed, the parents are in this for what they can get out of this. Slimeballs! Probably white trash. It is hard for me to believe how far this thing has gone. In the seventies, if I were the male student involved in such a situation, my parents would have admonished me to stop such conduct.....(such admonishment I would have ignored)....and the matter would certainly not have been reported to the District Attorney. What are the parents claiming damages for here? What is the extent of such damages, in a monetary sense, in this case? Do the parents have a cause of action for this?
2016-07-16-NOLA-shelley_dufresne_defense
Ex-Destrehan teacher says student in sex case acted in 'intentional, orchestrated' mannerBy Danielle Dreilinger, NOLA.com |
The Times-Picayune, 2016-07-16
Former Destrehan High teacher Shelley Dufresne, who admitted in criminal court to having sex with a student in 2014, said in a new civil filing that the student tried to blackmail her and circulated a lewd selfie boasting of their relationship.
Dufresne's assertion was made in her response filed Tuesday (July 12) and posted online late this week in a civil lawsuit brought in St. Charles Parish by the former student and his parents. They are suing Dufresne, her former colleague Rachel Respess and the St. Charles Parish School Board for damages.
The student's civil suit portrays Dufresne as an aggressor who mocked the boy on social media. Her response, which makes for her first detailed comment since the allegations were made public in 2014, paints a different picture.
The plaintiff "was not a young child of tender age incapable of understanding his specific actions," Dufresne response says. His actions were "intentional, orchestrated and unprovoked." Therefore, the student and his family should not get damages, Dufresne's filing says.
...
The student and parents wrote in their civil complaint that Dufresne moved in quickly to cement a close relationship with the boy, eventually having sex with him more than 40 times in 36 days.
In her response, Dufresne denied everything except that she lived in the parish and taught the plaintiff English at Destrehan High.
Her response said the boy
"remov(ed) his genitals from his clothing and plac(ed) himself upon the defendant"
when she was asleep or passed out.
He recorded that on his cell phone,
disseminated it to fellow members of the football team --
then deleted the photo before it could be used in court, the document said.
The deletion constitutes "spoliation of evidence," the response said.
The student bragged about taking photos and videos of the teachers without their consent, and told people that he had sex with one of the teachers to get revenge, the court filing said.
He tweeted and retweeted, saying his "sexual conquest" of the teachers elevated his social status.
Rather than Dufresne offering the student preferential treatment in her English class, the boy "made it very clear" that he "expected to receive favoritism and good grades," including exemption from completing work, according to her account. When she did not comply, "he then made certain allegations" about her to retaliate, the document said.
He also reacted in a threatening manner when Dufresne told him Sept. 18, 2014, that she was going to ask for him to be transferred to another class. Her account said the student told her she had "better not," insinuating that he would retaliate.
After news of the relationship broke a few weeks later, the student sought "attention and notoriety," calling himself "the king of SCP," St. Charles Parish, the document says. As late as April 2015 he responded, presumably positively, to a person who created a social media post linking to an article about the case and saying the student deserved "a statue of you erected on hill at Rome," Dufresne's court filing said.
...
2016-07-22-St-Charles-Parish-Herald-Guide-reports-Dufresne-defense
Former teacher who confessed to sex with teen accuses him of blackmailby Ryan Arena
St. Charles Parish Herald-Guide, 2016-07-22, July 22 at 11:00 am
Former Destrehan High School teacher Shelley Dufresne, who pleaded guilty to having sexual relations with a male student in 2014, has accused this same student of bragging about those relations on social media and attempting to blackmail her in return for preferential treatment and better grades.
These accusations and others surfaced last week through Dufresne’s response to a civil suit filed by the former student and his parents against Dufresne, fellow former DHS teacher Rachel Respess and the St. Charles Parish School Board.
...
Dufresne claimed she intended to request the student be transferred from her English class to another in September of 2014, at which time the student replied that she “better not,” insinuating retaliation. In the court filing, she alleges he made it clear he expected favoritism, good grades and exemption from certain class projects and assignments in return for not making “certain allegations.”
She also alleges he actively sought attention and notoriety for these allegations, including “re-tweeting” social media posts offering congratulatory statements. One such statement given as example claimed to the student, “you need a statue of you erected on a hill in Rome.”
Another claim stated the student allegedly referred to himself to others as the “King of SCP” (St. Charles Parish).
The student openly stated his desire for sex with one of the two defendants for the purpose of revenge, according to the filing.
[We hear from some that any teacher-student sex victimizes the student.
It certainly can.
But some students do view sex with teachers as THEIR victory and "achievement".
And I certainly do not believe that teacher-student sex necessarily causes lifetime harm for the student.]
2016-10-21-WP-i-feel-like-i-was-the-victim-former-high-school-teacher-blames-teenage-boy-for-seducing-her
‘I feel like I was the victim’: Former high school teacher blames student for seducing herBy Peter Holley
Washington Post, 2016-10-21
She was a 24-year-old substitute teacher.
He was a 17-year-old high school student.
And over the course of an illicit, months-long relationship during the 2015-2016 school year in Cedar Rapids, she admits, the pair had sex “hundreds of times.”
Mary Beth Haglin was charged in July with sexual exploitation by a teacher.
But now, Haglin claims that not only is she innocent of committing any crime, she’s actually the victim in the relationship.
Haglin appeared on the “Dr. Phil” show this week and accused the student of hatching an elaborate plan of romantic seduction, then threatening to “burn her life down” if she ended the relationship.
In recent months, Haglin claims, she’s been fired from her job and forced to work as a stripper using the nom de stage “Bambi.”
“The student twisted my brain into accepting this relationship,” she told Dr. Phil McGraw. “He did so with such intelligence and such an elevated vocabulary that I was completely duped by the whole facade.”
“Many people see him as the victim and me as the perpetrator,” she added. “From a psychological standpoint and from every other standpoint, I feel like I am the victim.
“He did burn my life to the ground.”
Haglin’s trial is scheduled to begin Nov. 14, but she has requested that it be relocated due to the publicity surrounding the case, according to the Associated Press.
The Cedar Rapids Community School District has banned Haglin from employment in the district, but she continued to work as an elementary school substitute teacher near the end of the last school year “because of a miscommunication,” the AP reported.
A spokesperson said the district formally removed Haglin from its “substitute central system” on June 14.
The former substitute teacher told “Inside Edition” in September that her tryst with her student started when he began writing flirtatious messages on Post-it notes that he left on her desk on his way out of class at Washington High School. The student began asking her to get lunch or coffee, she said on “Dr. Phil”; she initially resisted his overtures, she said, but the pair began texting and chatting on Facebook in September 2015.
At the time, she was 23 and the student was 17.
“Trust me, it’s not difficult to be a caring boyfriend,” the student texted Haglin, according to a message revealed by the show. “Especially to someone as magnificent as you.”
Haglin told “Inside Edition” the student even had pet names for his teacher, including “my empress” and “Mrs. Robinson,” a reference to Anne Bancroft’s classic movie role as an older woman who embarks upon an affair with a younger man in “The Graduate” movie.
Over time, Haglin said, the teen’s romantic gestures softened her resolve, and a sexual relationship began last October.
She was attracted to him, she told McGraw, because of “his mind,” which she described as more mature than his age.
“I was completely head over heels,” she told “Inside Edition.”
She said she met the teen nearly every day to have sex in her car, which she parked in a public park. They also visited his parents’ homes, she told “Dr. Phil.”
“We met several times a week, not every time was just to have sex,” she said. “There were times we would sit and talk. I thought in my mind this was some sort of real relationship.”
In Iowa, teachers are prohibited from sexual contact with students until 30 days after graduation, even if the student is at least 18, according to the Des Moines Register.
As their relationship progressed, Haglin said, she eventually sent the student naked pictures, which he shared with other teenagers. Haglin told McGraw that she never expected the student to share the images.
“You have got to be dumber than a box of rocks to share naked pictures with a 17-year-old boy,” the talk-show host said.
“He knew that I was vulnerable,” Haglin responded.
The relationship eventually unraveled when the teacher and student were spotted by other students in a car in June. One witnesses took video of the couple and posted it on Twitter, the Des Moines Register reported.
Haglin told McGraw that when the student began telling his classmates that he was carrying on an inappropriate relationship with her, she tried to break up with him.
At that point, she said, he threatened to tell school officials about the relationship and “light a match and burn down [her] life.”
Haglin said she was too scared to end the relationship, but a parent eventually convinced her to confess and shared that confession with school officials, who launched an investigation.
According to the Des Moines Register, Washington High School’s veteran principal, Ralph Plagman, “was asked to resign after the district determined he had participated in an ineffective initial investigation into accusations about Haglin’s conduct.”
The Gazette of Cedar Rapids reported that “though Plagman and other administrators investigated rumors of Haglin’s inappropriate relationship in February and again in May, no one in the district ever contacted police, district officials have said.”
Haglin told the Gazette that the district wanted to keep her conduct “hush-hush.”
[At school, he was the ‘cool’ teacher. Online, police say, he was a student-seducing porn star.]
“The Cedar Rapids Community School District has concluded its investigation into the events related to Mary Beth Haglin’s inappropriate relationship with a student during the spring 2016 semester at Washington High School,” a district statement said. “Under Iowa’s public records laws, the District is required to keep its investigation, and certain student information and personnel information confidential.”
Unable to find a teaching job and needing income, Haglin told “Dr. Phil” that she has been forced to take a job as a stripper.
“You could wind up having to register as a sex offender for probably 10 years,” McGraw told her. “You need to seriously step back and assess all of the bad decisions that have snowballed here because you are very young and you can so turn this around.”
“This does not have to ruin your life,” he added, before promising to help her find a counselor and a different job.
2017
2017-01-20-Heatst-the-medias-double-standard-for-female-teachers-accused-of-having-sex-with-underage-boys
The Media’s Double Standard for Female Teachers Accused of Having Sex with Underage BoysBy Ian Miles Cheong
Heat Street, 2017-01-20 | 7:53 am, January 20, 2017
[This features an impressive slide show
of photos of the female so-called "predators".]
A double standard exists in the way the rapes of young boys are handled in the media, especially when their rapists are sexually attractive.
“It’s every boy’s dream to have sex with the hot teacher in class” is the prevailing narrative, but it’s one that doesn’t line up with reality. Young victims are usually left traumatized and unable to process the ordeal.
A new article on ThoughtCatalog perpetuates the belief that the young boys “seduced” their teachers, calling the 13-year-old victim a “paramour” of the 25-year-old Alexandria Vera. The eighth-grade teacher was sentenced to ten years in prison for aggravated sexual assault—she had sex with him almost daily and their relationship was allegedly even approved of by the boy’s family. At one point, she had even become pregnant, but aborted the fetus before it came to term.
The language and descriptions within the article paint the shocking relationship as one of mutual consent despite the boy’s inability to do so. The piece perpetuates the idea that teenage boys are always up for sex, and that women are always being acted upon.
[As for me,
I recall the circa 1960s teenage boys view
on having sex with such a hot-looking female teacher:
"getting lucky".
As for the sex-drive of some teenage boys,
the instances of them raping their teachers attests to that.
Clearly, it is impossible to generalize about
whether a teenage boy might have lust for
an attractive female teacher.]
...
2017-04-25-Advocate-Calder-Dufresne-trial-day-1
Student takes stand in Destrehan teacher's trial over alleged sexual encountersBY CHAD CALDER
The Advocate (New Orleans), 2017-04-25
2017-04-25-Advocate-Calder-Durfresne-trial-day-1-continued
How it happenedBY CHAD CALDER
The Advocate (New Orleans), 2017-04-25 Apr 25, 2017 - 8:00 pm
2017-04-25-Nola-Dufresne-trial-day-1
'We all started having sex:'former student in Destrehan teacher trial
by Michelle Hunter
NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune, 2017-04-25 : on Tuesday, April 25, 2017 at 7:24 PM, updated April 25, 2017 at 10:20 PM
...
The tryst is just one of the details revealed
as Dufresne's trial on two counts of carnal knowledge of a juvenile
got underway in a Jefferson Parish court.
Prosecutors Rachel Africk and Seth Shute discussed the fake Facebook profile they say
Dufresne created to coordinate her multiple sexual encounters.
Defense attorneys Jim Williams and Kim McElwee, meanwhile,
accused the teen of criminal behavior -
including recording a video of himself touching a sleeping Respess with his genitals
and showing the video to his fellow football team members.
...
The teen, who is not being identified by NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune, told the court the relationship began in the late summer of 2014 during his junior year at Destrehan High. Dufresne began messaging him on Facebook using her own personal page one day after he checked out sick.
She'd teased him earlier in the day about being "Mexican," something the teen said he didn't find amusing because he is half-Colombian and half-Caucasian. On Aug. 22, 2014, the teen and Dufresne shared a kiss in her classroom after some flirting, he said.
"Later on that night was the first time that Shelly and I had intercourse," he said.
Dufresne arranged to pick the teen up from his Destrehan home following a scrimmage football game earlier in the evening, he said. The teen testified that Dufresne drove to an area right off Veterans Memorial Boulevard in Metairie by a daiquiri shop.
...
Dufresne created a fake Facebook profile named "Madison Mexicano," with an image of the cartoon character Speedy Gonzalez as the profile photo. The cover photo for the profile included the phrase, "I love Mexican boys," a reference to the teen, Africk said.
Dufresne frequently messaged with the teen using the Madison Mexicano account. The teen gave the court a list of the places where he and Dufresne would rendezvous.
"We had sex in multiple spots: the daiquiri shop in Metairie, off of Carriage Lane (in Destrehan) in a parking lot by some apartments," he said. "We also had sex in her house in Montz. We had sex right off of Brandon Hall (Drive, also in Destrehan), they have another parking lot. We had sex at (a friend's) house in the shed in the back house. We had sex at Rachel Respess' apartment in Kenner."
The teen admitted recording video of Respess as she slept on the couch of her Kenner apartment following the group sex encounter. He also admitted his genitals could be seen in the video.
"It was kind of like proof," he said, testifying that he showed it to some his teammates on the Destrehan High School football team. "I told them about it, but they didn't believe me."
Gossip surrounding Dufresne and the student spread afterwards, finally reaching the ears of school officials, who contacted the Sheriff's Office on Sept. 26, 2014, the prosecutor said. Dufresne and Respess were arrested Oct. 1, 2014.
...
McElwee also suggested the alleged group sex did not occur -- and thereby no crime was committed in Jefferson Parish -- because the teen told authorities he could not achieve an erection, something the teen denied on the witness stand.
Authorities never recovered the alleged video of Respess because the teen admitted deleting it and other photos and text messages out of fear. McElwee argued the teen did so because he knew he had committed the crime of video voyeurism and then shared the lewd video of Respess.
"You know it's a crime to video someone without their permission?" she asked.
The teen denied sharing the video and said he only showed others from his own cell phone.
Noting accusations that the teen threatened to expose Dufresne after she corrected him in class, McElwee implied that he was no victim. The teen testified that he felt could use the sexual relationship to his advantage in her class.
"There have absolutely been no consequences for his behavior," McElwee said
During opening statements, Africk told the court the teen victim wasn't forced to have sex with Dufresne.
"He thought, as a 16-year-old boy, that this was his fantasy, and he thought that this was pretty awesome, and he bragged about it," she said. But she said authorities are not in court because of the boy's decisions.
"We're here today because of Ms. Dufresne's decisions," Africk said. "The carnal knowledge statute places the onus on the adult."
2017-04-26-Nola-Shelley-Dufresne-NOT-GUILTY-in-Jefferson-Parish
Shelley Dufresne not guilty in Destrehan teacher sex trialBy Michelle Hunter
NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune, 2017-04-26
A judge on Wednesday (April 26) found former Destrehan High School teacher Shelly Dufresne not guilty of allegations she had sex with her 16-year-old English student on two occasions in Jefferson Parish.
Judge Danyelle Taylor, of the 24th Judicial District Court, found Dufresne, 34, not guilty of two counts of carnal knowledge of a juvenile, citing the lack of investigation and evidence and an untrustworthy main witness, the teen at the center of the case.
...
"I do not believe that the threshold has been met by the evidence presented to this court," she said later noting the teen's "braggadocios nature" and his "propensity to lie" created reasonable doubt.
...
The now-19-year-old student in the case took the witness stand with occasionally graphic testimony. Though Taylor found Dufresne's conduct in St. Charles Parish reprehensible, she said she just did not believe him.
"(The teen's) credibility becomes critical. While he is most certainly not on trial here today, his ability and his willingness to tell the truth are paramount issues for this court to consider," she said.
Taylor said she knows the teen is not a completely truthful person.
...
The teen, Taylor said, was not only a willing participant, but broached the subject of sex. The teen, she said, seemed to enjoy having something to hold over Ms. Dufresne.
"This court knows for an absolute fact that (the teen) was willing to lie to the court," Taylor continued, noting how the teen told prosecutors he did not wear watches during testimony about why he could not remember the exact dates and times of the sexual encounters.
At that moment, Taylor said she had in front of her the prosecution's file of Facebook messages and information and there sat a 2016 photo of the teen wearing a watch.
"Why lie about a watch?" she said. "It's possible (the teen) wanted to say what Ms. Africk wanted him to say, and that is a perilous position for him as a witness. This court must wonder whether he gave other statements because people in authorities wanted him to do so.
...
2017-04-26-Advocate-Calder-Dufresne-NOT-GUILTY-in-Jefferson-Parish
Destrehan teacher Shelley Dufresne found not guilty in student sex trialBY CHAD CALDER
The Advocate (New Orleans), 2017-04-26
Judge Danyelle Taylor said she recognizes
the case has “caused public outrage and deservedly so.”
But she said the testimony of the victim lacked credibility
and there wasn't enough evidence to prove beyond a reasonable doubt
that a crime had occurred in Jefferson Parish.
With no physical evidence or cell phone records,
"I am left with the inconsistent and factually inaccurate statements
of a person who I now understand
does not want to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth," she said.
...
2017-04-28-Nola-Shelley-Dufresne-questions_linger_in_wake_of_acquittal
Questions linger in wake of acquittal in Destrehan teacher sex trialBy Michelle Hunter
NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune, 2017-04-28
...
During Dufresne's trial, Jefferson Parish Assistant District Attorney Seth Shute said, "If this was a 32-year-old male having consensual sex with a 16-year-old female, he would be under the jail right now."
[Loyola University Law School Professor Dane Ciolino] agreed that the teen's gender - whether fair or not - may have been a factor in the case.
"We very easily could have had a different result had the genders been reversed," he said. "Is there any law on the law books that would say that? Absolutely not. But that's one of those intangibles that matter every day in litigated court cases."
...
2017-06-16-NOLA-charges-dropped-against-rachel-respess
Charge dropped for 2nd teacher in Destrehan student sex caseNOLA.com | The Times-Picayune, 2017-06-16
One of two former Destrehan High School teachers accused in a sex-abuse investigation involving a 16-year-old student
had her case dropped Friday (June 16) by the Jefferson Parish District Attorney's Office,
court records show.
The dropped charge ends criminal proceedings against the two teachers,
who still face civil litigation associated with the scandal.
...
Less than two months after Dufresne was found not guilty by a Jefferson Parish jury,
District Attorney Paul Connick Jr.'s office quietly dropped a
"failure to report the commission of certain felonies" count against Respess.
...
2017-06-16-Advocate-Calder-charges-dropped-against-rachel-respess
Charge dismissed against Destrehan teacher in Jefferson Parish teacher-student sex caseBY CHAD CALDER
The Advocate, 2017-06-16
Jefferson Parish District Attorney Paul Connick's office on Friday dropped its criminal charge against former Destrehan High School teacher Rachel Respess, who was accused of not informing police about an illicit sexual relationship between a fellow teacher and that woman's student.
...
posted by KHarbaugh at 11:47
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