Disturbing news regarding a former teacher.

[Atlas Has Shrugged]

I won’t name the school, and certainly not the teacher, but I just found out today that my fifth grade teacher, a man who taught at that school since 1969, had been caught watching pornography on a school computer, some of it containing children (not exactly child porn, not nude but none the less incredibly inappropriate pictures of children-you get the jist), and was promptly fired. According to what I have been told, he was looking at images of young girls mainly. They found them on his computer, the teachers’ lounge computer, and in the computer lab. I had heard rumors for two or three weeks, but I pretty much heard from a friend of my moms who still has younger children at the school (a small private school, going from preschool to eight grade) that the rumors are indeed true.

I had him as my 5th grade teacher in 2007-2008; while he was my homeroom teacher, he was first and foremost a history teacher. He pretty much openly favorited me; I did not try to be a “teachers pet” and he never did anything that in hindsight to me seemed “weird", so while I am not disturbed about what he thought about me, I can't help but wonder about what he thought of the other students. I always considered him to be one of my favorite teachers, along with both of my eight grade teachers and my sixth grade teacher. Out of all the teachers, he was by far the longest employed and most respected teacher, and was a pillar in the community and the church attached to the school. It’s so stunning to see a 45 year career just end like this.

You think you really know a person .

[Atlas Has Shrugged]

Perverts are mighty good in disguising. You know what is the most frequent line friends/neighbours of captures serial killer utters: "he was so normal"?

It's funny how the people thought to be weird are the most normal. Of all the teachers, it had to this guy. Never in a billion years would I guess it was him.

[Atlas Has Shrugged]

Apparently he admitted he had a problem; I hope he will face his demons. There was an odd side to him: he never told us his age. He told us he was turning 60 in 2008. He told my friend's older brother he was 65 in 1998. I once asked another teacher who was tutoring me if she knew out of curiosity: not a single staff member knew for sure. It just seemed like an odd thing, and now it is even more strange.

[Atlas Has Shrugged]

How can porn have children but not be child porn? Was it a nudist site? Obviously, naked pictures and work are incongruous.

No, I was told that they were just images of children in inappropriate poses and clothing that children should never be wearing. It was basically child porn, but he could not be arrested for what he was viewing.

[Atlas Has Shrugged]

It would indeed be very good to start viewing *passive* pedophilia (ie the fact of being attracted to children without actually doing anything to fulfill these instincts) as a mental illness to cure rather than as a capital sin to punish. Maybe if the stigma toward this decreased, this would allow more people to seek help and thus significantly reduce child abuse.

That said, viewing and possessing photos should not exactly be tolerated IMO.

He certainly should have been fired. I think it is a mental illness that is causing this. Maybe stress in his life? Or has this been going on for a long time? I have been praying for him, as I don't think he is close to being evil and hope in a year or two that the Church attached to the school (it is a Lutheran school) allows him to come back to church. He has been a member of the Church for 45 years, and taught the current pastor when he himself was in fifth grade. One of my best friends mom also was taught by him.