Classroom love ‘Big boys’ get fresh with female teachers

Many students say they recall an incident about three years ago, where students of a popular boys’ school in Kingston allegedly raped a female teacher, leading to the expulsion of three of the boys.

It’s a story of the typical high school crush gone wrong.

But fact is, ask any young man about the more memorable aspects of his high school experience, and it’s bound to come out between the reminiscences, that somehow, at some time, he found himself becoming attracted to a female teacher.

In fact, it’s what got some students through the dreary schooldays – and many will readily admit to imagining that the smiles seemed to mean more, that they revelled in whatever attention came their way, and that they weren’t fazed by the taboo of it at all.

The international media has brought the story home – time and time again – involving female teachers who have been caught in compromising situations with their charges. Some of those charged have admitted that the affairs stemmed from a simple schoolboy crush allowed to develop, simple schoolboy crushes that many teachers in Jamaica have had to contend with daily.

For many, their teaching the ‘three R’s’ come coupled with dealing with sex education issues – deciding how to properly address not just the regular innocent crush, but outright and lewd passes.

The young female teachers are admitting that they have students making passes at them daily, making inappropriate comments and often wanting to take things further.

“I get remarks such as ‘Miss you look sexy ennuh!’ or ‘Miss I like your virgin walk,” one of the teachers deemed ‘hot’ by a group of students at a popular technical high school in Kingston told all woman. “I am sure some of them would challenge it and actually get involved with you if you give them the chance, while others are just being boys,” she said.

Earlier, one of the boys in a group – after presumptuously yelling out “Miss you look sexy eenuh! Miss, I can get to know you better? Yuh body look good ennuh”, to this reporter – had pointed her out, a teacher who, according to him, a number of other boys were attracted to.

When asked whether they would get involved with a female teacher, one boy in the group butted in while his companion hesitated. “You have to think ’bout that?” he asked his schoolmate bemused. “If she look good like you(reporter), yes. Yes miss, if she give me the go ahead I would definitely get involved with her.”

The teacher, a petite fair-skinned woman who was dressed rather conservatively in a skirt suit, admitted that she was aware of the attraction by a number of the boys but did not let it faze her as a teacher.

She explained that she simply did not respond to these ‘forward’ comments, unless they were made to her face. Many times, she said, the comments are made after she had passed a group of boys or a particular block.

But what exactly fuels the attraction? We noted that the teacher was dressed conservatively – skirt at knees, indeed the shortest skirt she said she has.

“At times it gets annoying, because it’s not that I wear certain things to work to attract them,” she said. “I don’t wear short skirts and it’s not like you can come to school and don’t fix yourself up!”

For her, the situation is more of an annoyance than a pressure.

“For the most part, I just ignore them. If you try to answer them, they will not back down,” she said. “I remember one fifth form student showing me his phone and indicating that he wanted my number. And showing me the ‘I love you’ sign. I told him we were not size and he bluntly told me it was not about size,” she explained. “At that point I ask him how he could help me and that shut him up.”

To add fuel to the fire, she explained that sometimes the attention also comes from girls. She say she has had two incidents of females indirectly making passes at her.

A few miles later at a popular boys’ school, the story was more of the same.

Though reluctant at first, a 17-year-old admits, “Yes, it happen, you have situations where the male students are attracted to the female teacher. But it happen to boys who cannot control themselves.” He also explained that he has friends who have fallen prey to this kind of emotion. In fact, “I have a friend who touch up the teacher and got suspended,” he said.

And when asked if he would make a pass at a teacher, “Maybe I would get involve with her, yes, but it depends on the teacher, and if she would allow it.”

Another student agreed that these incidents do occur, but no longer at that particular school.

“I think the disciplinary system has changed. It does not allow for things like that here anymore,” he explained.

Over in St Catherine, same tale.

At a school in Portmore, a group of fifth formers spoke openly about the teachers they were attracted to. They commented especially on their appearances and their ‘shape’, but most admitted that they would never let these teachers know of their feelings, or the consequence would be bitter.

Attesting to the boys’ premonitions, when all woman questioned one of the ‘shapely’ teachers mentioned, she laughed and admitted her ignorance to these boys attractions, as she as never been approached directly or indirectly.

In Linstead, the teachers at another school also had their hands full in avoiding the attention of upper schoolboys.

“I had one student in particular, last year, who would come to class late, do no work at all and just sat staring at me,” a 26-year-old teacher said. “At the end of the class he would come up to me and say ‘Miss explain this to mi nuh’ while rubbing himself on me. This was done on more than one occasion so I began to realise what he was up to,” she said.

Another teacher, 23, agreed that she has had incidents where her 15-year-old boys would come up to her complimenting her on how good she looked, in a suggestive way.

Only if she says yes

From the conversations held with all the boys, we realised that they had one thing in common. They all said that they could only get involved with the teacher if she gave the go ahead, no matter how subtle.

This was the case with a past student of a high school in St Catherine who told all woman that at the age of 15, while in grade ten, he got involved with his Information Technology teacher, who he said was in her 30s. He said that though the relationship did not lead to sexual intercourse, they would kiss and touch each other in very passionate ways, whenever they got the chance.

It started, he said, when he saw her one day just staring at him. When he asked her what the problem was, she bluntly told him that she liked him. He immediately latched on to this, telling her how much he liked and had always admired her. Then the relationship began.

all woman was unable to get in touch with the teacher for a comment as she no longer teachers at the school. And the past student lost contact with her after graduating.

For educators the rules are clear, and the lines between what’s right and what’s not are thick.

“I am not ruling out the possibility of a young boy going through adolescence having those feelings. But we try to establish that there is some kind of demarcation between student and the teacher,” Ann Marie Needham, guidance counsellor at the all boys’ school Calabar High, said. “The teachers are first and foremost professionals, who have been taught that certain behaviours are not tolerated.”

She added: “Even if as a teacher you see the student displaying those kinds of feelings, you should coach the child through it – let him know that it is inappropriate. You will not necessarily beat up on the child but you will help them.”

Jasper Lawrence, chief education officer in the Ministry of Education, said that over the past 10 years, three incidents of female teachers getting involved with their male students was brought to his attention.

“Such behaviour is gross professional misconduct,” he said. “And it is dealt with within the perimeters of the education ministry.”

He pointed out that if a teacher (male or female) should get involved with a student in a sexual or intimate way, such behaviour would be a violation of the rules, and would result in the expulsion of the teacher from the profession. He said too that the Jamaica Teachers Association (JTA) has a code of ethics in relation to employer, colleagues and students, and a disciplinary committee that would deal with such inappropriate behaviour.

“There would be no protection from the Ministry or the JTA once such conduct can be substantiated with evidence,” Lawrence said.