Klarinet Archive - Posting 001012.txt from 1999/10

From: James Leonard Hobby <jhobby@-----.net>
Subj: Re: [kl] re: playing the Clarinet from behind the student
Date: Sun, 31 Oct 1999 11:48:48 -0500

Not in music, in particular, although I know of cases involving band
directors. I think probably I've seen less music teachers than any other
kind, actually. Just teachers, in general, are an easy target of such
charges. (The most recent one that's wandered through my court involves a
"school resource officer" (i.e., a cop assigned to the school for security
purposes) and a "special education" student (one unfit for regular classes
for a variety of reasons.) This particular student is there because of
serious behavior problems.

Of course, it's not just teachers. Almost any profession that has any
contact with children is in dangerous water, and not just with sexual
charges. We have two or three a year come through where the preacher is
charged with inappropriate conduct. (FBI statistic: In the US, where a
profession is given, the largest number of child molesters list Baptist
preacher.)

While it varies, the age of consent is 18 here in the US (varying from 15
to 21, depending on what you are consenting to.) Also, you have to realize
that this country was started by the religious nuts that were tossed out of
your country. <g> Much of the US is very much controlled by the
puritanesque mores that were in fashion 200 years ago. (Last year, a group
of high school students were acused of witchcraft, mostly because they
dressed in black all the time, and there were public threats that they
should be burned at the stake.)

We're at (I hope) the top of a cycle of fear, here, now, both with sexual
problems and violence in the schools. ANYthing that happens, regardless of
how innocent, will now be construed negatively. (Girl suspended for 3 wks
for having a box of Midol tablets. Boy expelled for rest of year for
having a small belt buckle (solid metal) in the shape of a gun. Boy taken
into juvenile court after a fight for saying to another kid, "I hate you.
I wish I could kill you." (Both nine years old.) And it gets weirder and
weirder.)

All things being considered, I suggest that if a teacher needs to help a
student with clarinet positioning, it would be better to do it with as
little touching as possible, regardless of how innocent that touch is.
It's better to be safe than sorry. Very sorry!

Jim

================

>From: Tony@-----.uk (Tony Pay)

>On Sat, 30 Oct 1999 21:33:16 -0400, charette@-----.org said:

> You may win in a court of law; however, your name gets dragged through
> the mud.
[snip]
>As a matter of fact, how plausible is it that a student would bring such
>a case in the US, given of course that the action *was* innocent? I
>can't imagine any of my students doing so, but perhaps the atmosphere
>there is different.

>Have there been many examples of music teachers and their students going
>through this? Jim, you mentioned you've seen 'a lot of this sort of
>thing' -- was that in music, specifically?

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