A teacher at a north side non-profit for at-risk youth was charged last week with criminal sexual assault for allegedly having a sexual relationship with a 15-year-old male student of hers, authorities said. Linda Pithyou, 29, is accused of having sex with the teen in her car in the area of Sheridan Road and Pratt Boulevard in the Rogers Park neighborhood, said Andy Conklin, a spokesman for the Cook County State's Attorney's office. Source/Read more.
13 comments:
But didn't they just award an Oscar to Kate Winslet for playing a Nazi who seduced a 15 year old boy in The Reader? Wasn't that trumpeted as a "sensual" masterpiece? I have yet to hear anyone call the Kate Winslet character a pedophile. So why ding this teacher for it? Of course the under age drinking and the drug use won't be overlooked . . . oh, wait, Kate's character drinks champaign with the kid too, right? Hey, maybe there were just acting out a scene from this marvelous Hollywood masterpiece!
- PEACE -
Well, Fargo, you are hearing me call the character a pedophile.
There has always been a sort of a double standard regarding couplings between teen boys and grown women, vs teen girls and mature men. Back when i was a teen, we had a woman teacher in her early 30s, a Sarbonne-educated woman, very attractive, who taught French and German and who was the laughing stock of the school for her adventures with the male students. However, people did NOT laugh when male teachers seduced young girls, and a man who did this put his life at risk.
People need to know the double standard is over and that women are just as culpable as men, and really do just as much damage. That LaTournelle woman wrecked that boy's life. She deprived him of his youth and early adulthood- he is now a man in his twenties stuck with a kid and an aging wife who is too old for him.
I'd just like to know what a grown woman finds attractive in an immature boy. Seems to me that emotional regression is an occupational hazard of teaching- you spend so much time around kids that after a while you regress to that level and start thinking of yourself as one of them. I can't think what else could explain so many young women who seem normal and attractive taking shines to immature young boys.
Wouldn't that same reasoning apply to the men as well? If not, if they seduce the girls purely out of sexual desire and thrill of power then . . . that has to apply to the women as well. I don't care how "normal and attractive" a woman is it's still all about sex and power. To say otherwise, to chalk it up to "emotional regression" is to fall prey to the same hippocritical thinking that you so rightly pointed out in the beginning of your response.
- PEACE -
Wow (shaking my head). Reminds me of a gym teacher at my old high school who was accused of preying on the female students. I don't remember if he was ever formally charged, but he was asked to leave the employ of the school.
Fargo, I'm not excusing the woman. She has done this boy a world of harm and she needs to be held responsible as an adult, and to me that means a prison sentence. She's responsible for her own emotional state-she should know the hazard here, and should know when she is slipping over the line emotionally.I have never bought the "mental illness" defense,especially for stuff like this. She knew perfectly well that the boy was off limits, and she really should know that there is something SERIOUSLY WRONG with an adult of about 30 who hankers after immature teens.
I am only pointing out that this is a hazard of hanging out with kids all day? I remember many other teachers who, while they avoided erotic entanglements with the kids, still regressed in other ways, to the detriment of their students who were looking to them to supply adult guidance and judgment. They dressed like teens, they gossiped about the kids to other kids, and otherwise stooped to very childish behavior that was destructive to their students.
Teachers (and parents)take note: Your kids don't need you to be a "buddy" or "equal", and they really don't need an adult lover. They want you to be an Elder. They crave your guidance and judgment even as they tell you to get off their backs. Stay on your pedestal.
People who work with youngsters all day should make a point of seeking adult company and adult pastimes when they are away from work. They should seek out people in other occupations and perhaps ought to take a long leave from their jobs every now and then, and do a different type of job for a while, just to maintain their perspective.
I found out from a co-worker that she is the daughter of a priest at his (Assyrian) church.
-The streets are talking-
We had a popular football coach at my high school, an ugly,dirty man who had a charming personality and used it to get over on the girls. He'd then brag about his exploits, naming names, to his football team. He could not be dislodged from his job because he had a champion team and the alumnae were nuts about him, and so were many of the kids. The parents of the victimized girls never lodged complaints, out of shame.I thought he should have been shot.
I especially like, "They should seek out people in other occupations and perhaps ought to take a long leave from their jobs every now and then, and do a different type of job for a while, just to maintain their perspective." Personally, I think that would excellent advice for many many kinds of jobs, police officers, social workers and politicians for example. Burn-out as well as a skewed perspective could be alliviated by taking long leaves and working in different types of jobs.
- PEACE -
Agree with you totally, Fargo.
I used to visualize a Stress Reduction Spa for people doing really intense jobs, especially first responders such as police and firefighters, but also parameds (the most underpaid and underappreciated people in the world) and ER doctors and nurses. These are hellishly stressful jobs that can involve immense danger to your own life, and where you see so much on a daily basis that doesn't do your heart good.
If people go a little crazy after years on these jobs and become abusive and volatile, or develop psychiatric or substance abuse problems, I understand. These people should get a year's unpaid leave while maintaining full seniority and medical benefits, and do something else that one year. More paid vacation is in order, too. It would cost the public more money to do these things up front, but the money spent would be fractional compared to the lives and money saved. WE might not have so many badges on the wall at Police headquarters, nor complaints of excessive force or outright abuses. We might not have so many people killed on the job, or so man y critical errors.
I thought sex with a minor was statutory rape, not criminal sexual assault. Is there more to the story?
I hope they're not blaming her for his drinking and drug use because at 15, I think kids are well aware of what drugs and alcohol are and he should be dealt with for that behavior independent of the situation with her.
Furthermore, I'm sure he enjoyed all of it! Come on...
She's an adult, he's a child. End of story. She deserves whatever she gets.
This should come as no surprise. In today's world you have all kind of sexual predator's pedophiles, drug dealers, pimps, political corruption, genocide, prostitution, money laundering, corporate corruption, greed, and every thing else under the sun. America is feeling the wrath of God as we speak. The economy is fragile, many people are out of work, homelessness, all forms of depression here on earth. America needs to realize that God is the answer not money or greed or selfishness. Wake Up! Wake Up! Wake Up! The clock is Ticking!
Karl, this problem has nothing to do with money or greed.
Actually, things have improved in our attitudes toward pedophilia and our handling of these people.
When i was a kid, many decades ago, the misbehavior of teachers and their dalliance with underage students was known but tacitly tolerated because they ran championship football teams or they were good-looking women with Sarbonne educations, or something.
And you were NOT ALLOWED to suggest, even in a whisper, that some upstanding parent might be molesting his kid, yet this happened all the time, and the child was powerless.
In most traditional cultures, sexual abuse of children was, and still is sanctioned, including Victorian England, where 10 year old girls were conscripted into prostititution, and in many countries around the world, where marriage still takes place on terms that constitute child molestation, and girls as young as 8 are sold into marriages with middle-aged men.
These days, at least, there is no tolerance for teachers and caregivers OR parents who abuse their kids in this manner.
We really are doing better than we used to. But we need to do better still. This woman should be prosecuted and sent to jail for a long time. I don't care how much the kid thinks he enjoyed it. I keep thinking of the boy who that LaTournelle woman seduced, who found himself a father at age 14 and now is married to an aging woman old enough to be his mother and has a pre-teen son, even though he is not yet 30 years old. He missed out on all the experiences a young man ought to have, because of this predatory woman.
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