I can’t think of a title for this post, not without swearing so hard none of you would read beyond it. I just don’t have the words to describe my feelings in the few brief syllables allowed in the title box that wordpress gives me. Equally I don’t really know who I am most angry at – the judge or the teacher!
Apologies if my language starts to slip and I cause offence. But this is my opinion – and only that, no one elses, just mine and I’m pissed off!
The recent judgement in the case of Stuart Kerner and his 16 year old pupil makes my fucking blood boil! (ooops slipped up already!)
For a judge to suggest that this 44 year old married man, a senior teacher at a secondary school was “groomed” by his 16 year student is beyond abhorrent. Her words “Were it not for her obsession with you, the offence would never have occurred.” make me be want to be sick. Sorry Judge Joanna Greenburg, it would never have happened if he had stepped away and sought the assistance and advice of his senior leadership team. It would never have happened if he had been the adult in the situation and kept his trousers on!
Lets be clear here, I don’t doubt that she harboured a crush on him. I don’t doubt that, in that god awful emotional state that teenagers find themselves in, with hormones charging around their systems like a formula 1 race, that she found herself attracted to this man. That does not however give him the RIGHT to sleep with this child – because that’s what she was, a child, in his care and there is NO EXCUSE WHATSOEVER for what he did!
I don’t fucking care how upset he was by his wives miscarriage. I don’t care what sort of background she comes from, what she did to encourage him or whether she “stalked” him into this situation…. he was STILL her teacher and should have walked away and spoken to someone else about the issues he was facing.
I have seen 16 year old girls with a crush, I have watched them sigh and stare at the object of their affections. Heave their bosom and try to be a grown up, to be desirable and desired. But that is still NO EXCUSE for him sleeping with her!
He said she was “pathological liar and fantasist” yeah right ok mate….and ? Have you ever met a 16 year old who always tells the truth and doesn’t live in a fantasy world – lets face it the one they actually do live in is pretty shitty! And you’ve never come across one of these before in all your years of teaching? 16 year old girls can be a nightmare, they can be badly behaved, stroppy, mean, needy, tearful, lying and manipulative – still NO EXCUSE to sleep with her!
And to add to the whole, “he’s a teacher she was his student” stuff that is going on here, he was also a vice principle of the school, a member of the senior leadership, someone who other teachers, would come to for support and guidance. So not only did he violate the trust of that child and her parents, he betrayed the trust of other members of staff who looked to him for set an example…..and what an example he set!
The Judge has blurred the lines for the offence he committed, she has in my opinion opened the door to other adults using such behaviour in children as an excuse for abusing them. She has shifted the blame from the abuser to the victim, from the guilty to the innocent.
Where will it end? who knows! will we go back to the “if she wasted wearing that short skirt, I’d never have raped her” argument?
Or the “if she argued back I would never have beaten her to death” defence?
Think Judge Grrenburg – what if it had been your daughter? would think the same? I doubt it.
Thank you mummy Barrow for giving me the chance to join in with the other angry bloggers this week! I love you and you Ranty Friday
I fully agree with you here. As an adult he should know better, and as a teacher he would have gone through countless hours of child protection training and briefings so alarm bells should have been ringing from the beginning. It does show you where some men’s brains lie I guess.
I agree. Teachers are trained to deal with situations like this, especially in secondary schools. Yes, you will get some 16 year old girls who try to lead teachers on, but they are the adult and they are the ones who should be saying no and taking the matter to their superiors. Heck, even Waterloo Road had a recent storyline in which a teacher did just that. Rare that a TV drama can get something right yet the legal outcome goes the other way.
Yup, am with you utterly. Even if she flounced in in nothing but her scanties and begged him he is still utterly in the wrong. She is a child, he is an adult in a position of authority and the job of safeguarding children in his care, and he should have kept a professional distance. Cannot believe the judges comments, utterly ridiculous.
You are so right, this is beyond comprehension. I still cannot get my head around it!
I am with you 100% and cannot believe a judge would do that. Stuart Kerner must be rubbing his hands in delight the foul man.
Totally wrong on EVERY level
It is possibly the most bizarre judgement I’ve ever heard.
And somehow to hear the judge was a woman makes it even worse. Or is that just me?
In my little forest bubble this story has totally passed me by. You would think that those with more life experience, who have been through the teenage years and lots of life itself would know better or be held more accountable. Good ranting skillz 😉
I somehow missed this too (I avoid the new these days ) just blooming OUTRAGEOUS
If I had more time on Friday this is the post I would have written. Word for word. As I only had four minutes to write the post I did, it was about the other thing that had been bugging me: cafes doing stupid overszed plates of food.
But this story and every single aspect of it makes me fucking rage. I am with you on this. Totally and utterly.
The judgment was appalling. It doesn’t matter what was going on in his personal life or how obsessed the teenager was (she’s a teenager, it’s kind of what they do?!) he should have never had any kind of intimate relationship with her. Victim blaming at it’s most finest and worst, and totally worrying because haven’t we spent years trying to ensure that victims don’t get blamed? That judge should be made to resign at the very least!