CA Teacher Resigns After Leaving Family For Student

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Modesto Bee

Posted on Tue, Feb. 28, 2012
Enochs High teacher resigns after leaving wife, kids for student, 18
By Nan Austin

last updated: March 01, 2012 12:36:21 PM

A 41-year-old Enochs High School teacher in Modesto has resigned and moved in with an 18-year-old student.

The reaction has been largely shock, disapproval and betrayal.

The teen's mother has waged a very public campaign on Facebook since last week, when her daughter moved out of the family's home and into a Modesto apartment with the man. He has left his wife and children, one of whom is a junior at Enochs.

Modesto police are investigating whether there was inappropriate contact before the girl turned 18 in the fall.

And school district and teachers union officials worry that an ethical and moral line has been crossed, even if the student is legally an adult.

James Hooker was placed on paid administrative leave Feb. 3 by Modesto City Schools and resigned Feb. 22, he said Tuesday. Hooker taught business and computer classes, and he was an adviser to three active campus clubs.

"In making our choice, we've hurt a lot of people," Hooker acknowledged. "We keep asking ourselves, 'Do we make everyone else happy or do we follow our hearts?' "

Hooker and Enochs senior Jordan Powers said Tuesday in an interview at The Bee that they are making a life for themselves "day by day."

Powers was in Hooker's virtual business class and an associated club until his suspension. They said they met when she was a freshman.

Tammie Powers, Jordan's mother, said she believes Hooker pursued her daughter. She said her daughter's grades fell this year, and Jordan had panic attacks.

"I believe it was the stress of the lie," Tammie Powers said. She said her daughter was "always compliant," kept her room tidy at their Waterford home and minded her curfew. No R-rated movies until she was of age. No lone trips to the mall or the movies.

"I was really, really careful. I wanted her to be safe," she said.

"In hindsight, in retrospect, I should have looked at things differently," Powers said.

Powers said her first inkling that her daughter was involved with her teacher came Jan. 16, during her young son's trip to the emergency room. Hooker came to the hospital with her daughter, who left her phone with an older sister.

The sister, suspicious, found dozens of text messages from Hooker. Powers said when she confronted her daughter, she denied any romance existed. Still worried, Powers contacted Modesto police detectives the next day.

Looking back over phone records, she said she found an estimated 8,000 text messages between the teacher and student going back through the summer. In the fall, about 32 texts a day, starting at 6 a.m. were recorded, she said.

School officials contacted her about a week later with concerns, she said. Discussions between police, school and the family continued for another week, ending with Hooker's suspension Feb. 3.

At that point, Powers said, she was assured by school officials that Hooker would stay away, and her daughter said she was done with Hooker.

"She promised me they didn't have contact. I didn't know until last week there was a sexual relationship. We didn't see any of it," Powers said.

Jordan Powers' father died in 2001. Tammie Powers is engaged, and her fiancé and one of his children live with them, along with Jordan's younger brother. The mother said her fiancé "is horrified, but he's not going to fight with him."

On Facebook, Powers has called Hooker "an arrogant pervert," among other things, and urged readers to "help get the word out" about his involvement with a student.

The hundreds of responses are, for the most part, supportive of her. Many express disbelief.

David Wainwright posted that he sees teacher and student as complicit in the relationship, then added: "I just wouldn't of expected this from my fav teacher. What is the world coming to?"

Modesto City Schools Superintendent Pam Able confirmed Hooker's resignation Tuesday morning.

"Allegations of Mr. Hooker having a relationship with a student is the source of great concern for staff, students and parents. I consider student-teacher dating relationships to be not only unprofessional, but immoral," Able said via e-mail.

Modesto City Schools Board President Rubén Villalobos said Tuesday: "Schools need to be a safe place. Anything less than that is a failure." He said he could not comment on the case, but said in general teacher-student romances are wrong "because of that unequal balance of power."

Such relationships are rare, said Megan Gowans, executive director of the Modesto Teachers Association. She said the union offers training about lines teachers should not cross, even with adult students. "In the teacher-student relationship, there's a professional expectation that doesn't stop at age 18," Gowans said.

Hooker knows his decisions may have cost him his teaching career. He taught business courses for 15 years and advised three campus clubs — Future Business Leaders of America, Mock Trial Club and Virtual Business Club.

Extra jobs such as the clubs earned Hooker $28,000 in added pay in 2009, the latest figures immediately available. District records show Hooker made $110,537 that year.

Enochs Principal Michael Coats said Tuesday that a new business teacher has been found, and teachers will step in to advise the club teams. Coats has assured parents contacting the school that students in Hooker's classes will get credit for their work.

Hooker said he is forbidden to have contact with the students or staff at Enochs.

Hooker and Jordan Powers said their relationship was strictly teacher-student until mid-December, when they started talking more frequently and then dated. "I just kind of knew that she's the one," he said.

Powers turned 18 on Sept. 5, and Modesto police say that makes her a consenting adult. However, Lt. Rick Armendariz said there is an ongoing investigation involving a high school teacher and student.

Hooker confirmed Tuesday that he remains the object of a police probe. He said he is confident he will be cleared of accusations that any physical relationship started while Powers was a minor.

"There's no evidence of that. There's no proof of that. It didn't exist," Hooker said.

He said the criticism is part of a campaign of lies he and Powers face online and in person. "I've been portrayed as a monster through all of this," Hooker said. "I'm not a monster. I'm not any different than I've always been."

Powers sat quietly by Hooker's side as he spoke Tuesday. She said she is on independent study and doesn't attend classes at Enochs, but intends to graduate and enroll in a four-year college to become a nurse. "I'm walking the stage in May," she said.

Hooker said he hopes to get a job in the private sector. "We're just taking it day by day," he said.
 
Well, what's the angle here?

As a teacher I do have pretty strong ethical objections to teacher-student dating. However, the school district reacted appropriately here in suspending the guy, he's since resigned, and the police have done their job investigating the timeframe of the relationship as well. Not much more the authorities can or should do, IMO. Intimate relationships between 18-year-olds and older adults are not actually criminal nor do I think they should be treated as such.
 
Not much more the authorities can or should do, IMO. Intimate relationships between 18-year-olds and older adults are not actually criminal nor do I think they should be treated as such.

True, but the man left his wife for a much younger woman and the 18 year old is basically a home wrecker. Not illegal, but certainly immoral.
 
Nobody has ever left their wife for another woman before? Where are all those threads? And why is the girl a home wrecker?
 
Yeah, seems to me if that epithet should be aimed at anyone it should be him. She's not the one who had commitments to his wife and children.
 
Has she exhibited behavior of a homewrecking nature in the past? How do we know his marriage wasn't shitty and miserable?

I don't have enough information about this situation to judge the man, nor do I have any desire to. It really sucks for his kids, but coming from a family where my mother and father repeatedly claimed to have only stuck it out for my benefit, it's not to the child's benefit. Again, I don't know if the situation was poor beforehand.
 
See what happens when gays are allowed to marry!!!! ;)

He's done nothing illegal (assuming there was no contact prior to her 18th bday), and he did the right thing by quitting his job. Plenty of men leave their wives, and usually for younger upgrade. While it's a very crappy thing to do to his wife and kids, again he's doing nothing that hasn't been done before.

Marriage is such a joke, which is why I don't understand the uproar over keeping it such a special event. It started as a property transaction/contract, turned into a more romantic fairy tale, and now it's something that fails more than it succeeds.
 
Yeah, seems to me if that epithet should be aimed at anyone it should be him. She's not the one who had commitments to his wife and children.

But shouldn't a married man be off limits? It takes two to tango.
 
No one is saying that. But "homewrecker" is always applied to the woman regardless of which of them was actually married, which is bullshit. It takes two to tango.

It was his own home to wreck. She perhaps made a bad choice (and I'm saying "perhaps" because I don't know the whole story), but if you're going to hurl "homewrecker" around, aim it at the appropriate party.
 
going strictly by the information provided and not speculating

ORJ3I.Em.11.jpg


he is not even looking at her,
she is the one that appears to be obsessed with him.
 
No one is saying that. But "homewrecker" is always applied to the woman regardless of which of them was actually married, which is bullshit. It takes two to tango.

It was his own home to wreck. She perhaps made a bad choice (and I'm saying "perhaps" because I don't know the whole story), but if you're going to hurl "homewrecker" around, aim it at the appropriate party.

This. I hate the term "homewrecker" because it's used almost always in regards to the "other" woman, regardless of whether she is married or not. Is she right to date a married man? No, but he's the one doing the wrecking.
 
I am reading two daily newspapers now. The second one offered a year subscription for $29.00. That is less than 8 cents a paper. Unbelievable.

Anyways there are stories every week about our CA teachers. I read this one, and said to myself, 'That's not good.' Then realized that was about all I could conclude.

There are other stories, that have more 'parts' to them that make my sigh a little deeper.
I will post those in this thread, because 'school' 'teachers' are universal to our way of life.
 
Depends on the school or school system's rules I guess. I work for a private college that has a very strict sexual harassment policy and had a prof "resign" (as in, you have 5 minutes to resign or we can you) when a student admitted to having a sexual relationship. Two consenting adults, nothing illegal at all, but the school administration makes and enforces its own rules. :shrug:
 
I'm OK with using this thread to compile articles about teachers breaking societal norms.

And we could pack it full in days because stories like these are so common. To narrow it down, we might just want to stick to CA teachers.
 
One of my highschool teachers got caught peeping on his neighbor and video taping her through her window. :doh:
 
I work for a private college that has a very strict sexual harassment policy and had a prof "resign" (as in, you have 5 minutes to resign or we can you) when a student admitted to having a sexual relationship. Two consenting adults, nothing illegal at all, but the school administration makes and enforces its own rules. :shrug:
At most public universities, the rule is that faculty are not to engage in romantic/sexual relationships with students towards whom they're acting in any sort of supervisory capacity (teaching, advising, thesis direction etc.). If a faculty member has become involved with a student in a situation where such a conflict of interest exists, s/he is supposed to report it to his/her department chair, who in turn is to come up with a formal plan to resolve the conflict without impairing the student's academic opportunities (for example, is a comparably qualified alternate dissertation panelist available?). So an attempt to accommodate will usually be made, but if no viable arrangement is available, the faculty member will be told s/he must discontinue the relationship for the duration of the supervisory capacity. That's the standard policy, anyway. But firings are pretty rare, and no doubt many "conflicts of interest" never get brought to any administrator's attention at all. Some schools add a clause to the effect that relationships outside any supervisory capacity are also "strongly discouraged"; some don't.

In my experience this is one issue where younger faculty tend to take a more conservative stance than older faculty.
 
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We are really strict on the no frat rule. I'm not sure why but it's kind of a hot topic here at the moment (not this particular instance but sexual harassment in general). Everyone has to go through training to understand how the college defines it, where to report it, and what the consequences are, and there are several active "committees" on the topic. In this particular instance, the letter from the VP that went out to faculty and administration stated, "the professor resigned rather than face termination" (I can post that quote here since it was also quoted in the media). Of course this was after a legitimate investigation; no one gets fired just based on allegations. Perhaps because it's a fairly conservative private college the administration feels the need to be more strict with conduct in general. All of our major projects are funded by wealthy donors that for the most part are very conservative and old fashioned. Having married professors sleeping with students doesn't exactly help rake in the dough. Students have been excused or placed on probation over things posted on Facebook (not illegal things). I did some digging years back and it's kind of scary how many of our policies are shaped around donor demands.

Personally I don't give a flip what two consenting adults do in their spare time but rules are rules.
 
No agendas, just wondering what people thought about it. Is that illegal around here? Or is it more fun to assume that people have agendas and to comment on that? I don't know, just a bit confusing there.

Anyway..the thing that stood out to me right away was that her father had died. Maybe after some time passes she'll see things, and the teacher, more clearly. Could be a case where there are issues with the home situation-the mother's new fiance, etc. Who knows.
 
The guy is an outright d-bag, particularly if he targeted this girl while she was still an underage student.

I think that's an interesting word, targeted. Not saying AT ALL that this guy is a pedophile in any way, but the word targeted is used in those cases. In cases of consensual relationships, how can that word apply? Especially when it involves someone in a position of authority, like a teacher.

I wonder how much he initially knew about her home life, her father's death, etc. If he showed personal concern for her and that led to more? How emotionally vulnerable she was, etc. Of course they are going to say that any sexual contact didn't happen until she was 18. Only they know what really happened there. As for the texts, if that happened before 18... I don't know what most school policies are about teachers texting students and having their cell phone numbers. I have heard about things like Facebook contact policies. Even if she was 18 she is still a student, so if there was a policy about that it could be an issue I suppose.
 
Personally I don't give a flip what two consenting adults do in their spare time but rules are rules.

I agree with this. It's not really my business. Nobody appears to be getting hurt, and thats all that matters here. Whether or not it's "weird" or "morally wrong" is none of my concern. IMO we should be focusing on actual pedophiles who attack children, not bizarre legal relationships between two consenting adults.
 
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