This just happened and I have to get it off my chest. TL;DR — I was interviewed by a local news anchor about an old teacher I knew when I went to school who had just been accused of sexual assault last June, the very month he was set to retire. I told them I didn't think he did it, if he was the kind of person to do something like that, he wouldn't wait until the last month before he retired to do it.
I was walking to the grocery store in my town and just before going in I noticed two news anchors with a microphone and camera. One of them approached me and asked me if I was from here. I told her I grew up and went to the schools here K-12. (I'm 28, born in 1996, graduated in 2014.) She told me a teacher had just been accused of sexual abuse. She then goes "but innocent until proven guilty." I said my entire life I've never heard of anything like that with any teacher here. I asked who it was, she didn't immediately tell me his name "he teaches music" but after asking more she finally did. It wasn't just any music teacher, but the most well-known and beloved one whose name I had heard throughout all my years going to school more than any other teacher. (I even knew another music teacher that died while I was in school.) I never really did music and never had for a teacher himself, but she still allowed me to be interviewed for their story.
Before this, I kept asking questions about the details of when it happened and what the accusation was. She said they were reporting today, the accusation was made in early June and allegedly occurred on that same day. The accusation itself was that, in the classroom, the teacher had inappropriately touched, kissed, groped, hugged etc. the student. The kicker is that this teacher was quite old, and was already set to retire on June 30th, the end of the month the accusation was made.
At no point did I say something as direct as, "he's innocent, he didn't do it!" But it was all too clear from how I was talking that this was my stance. She asked basic questions, but eventually I had the chance to speak and said this: "Think about it logically. Suppose it was true, that this entire time, this teacher was the kind of person who would do something like that. Why would he wait until the very last month before he retired to do it, ruining his reputation for the rest of his life in the process?"
The more I think about it, this is what I think happened: often false accusations aren't completely fabricated. (though this could have been.) I'm guessing it was a girl and he had indeed hugged her goodbye, maybe kissed her once on the cheek and she hadn't expected that or didn't like it or something, but then just ran with this and made the accusation of "sexual abuse" for no other reason because she could and she's utterly terrible.
As someone who has been at the receiving end of false accusations myself and had a friend who was falsely accused of rape in college and left that college as a result, I naturally take this sort of thing seriously. It's almost worse that the man already retired, it makes it harder to defend it now that he's not actively a teacher and I fear that many people will just believe it and his reputation for the rest of his life will be tarnished as a result. I have no idea if this will go to court but the news reporting on it can only make things worse because all it will do is put this in the minds of people who were previously completely unaware of it to begin with.
It's worth mentioning I live in a very liberal suburban town just outside of NYC.
It's also worth mentioning the definition of "sexual assault." (though the news anchor never used this term, its implications are relevant here.) I remember when I first heard the term years ago, I assumed it was just synonymous with rape, because that's exactly what it sounds like. We of course live in a day and age where false accusations have never been more prevalent, and if someone does anything from lightly gracing a girl to hugging them goodbye when they know them, it falls under the same category of severity as rape and murder.
This is relevant to this forum because this is 2024. Shit like this was not happening when I was growing up, I would have remembered it. It's never been worse than it is now. The younger generation has never been so mentally ill and so negatively infected by the predominant culture. I'm getting the fuck out of this country because it's only going to get worse and I spend time on the internet recommending others to do the same if they have the option to.
I was walking to the grocery store in my town and just before going in I noticed two news anchors with a microphone and camera. One of them approached me and asked me if I was from here. I told her I grew up and went to the schools here K-12. (I'm 28, born in 1996, graduated in 2014.) She told me a teacher had just been accused of sexual abuse. She then goes "but innocent until proven guilty." I said my entire life I've never heard of anything like that with any teacher here. I asked who it was, she didn't immediately tell me his name "he teaches music" but after asking more she finally did. It wasn't just any music teacher, but the most well-known and beloved one whose name I had heard throughout all my years going to school more than any other teacher. (I even knew another music teacher that died while I was in school.) I never really did music and never had for a teacher himself, but she still allowed me to be interviewed for their story.
Before this, I kept asking questions about the details of when it happened and what the accusation was. She said they were reporting today, the accusation was made in early June and allegedly occurred on that same day. The accusation itself was that, in the classroom, the teacher had inappropriately touched, kissed, groped, hugged etc. the student. The kicker is that this teacher was quite old, and was already set to retire on June 30th, the end of the month the accusation was made.
At no point did I say something as direct as, "he's innocent, he didn't do it!" But it was all too clear from how I was talking that this was my stance. She asked basic questions, but eventually I had the chance to speak and said this: "Think about it logically. Suppose it was true, that this entire time, this teacher was the kind of person who would do something like that. Why would he wait until the very last month before he retired to do it, ruining his reputation for the rest of his life in the process?"
The more I think about it, this is what I think happened: often false accusations aren't completely fabricated. (though this could have been.) I'm guessing it was a girl and he had indeed hugged her goodbye, maybe kissed her once on the cheek and she hadn't expected that or didn't like it or something, but then just ran with this and made the accusation of "sexual abuse" for no other reason because she could and she's utterly terrible.
As someone who has been at the receiving end of false accusations myself and had a friend who was falsely accused of rape in college and left that college as a result, I naturally take this sort of thing seriously. It's almost worse that the man already retired, it makes it harder to defend it now that he's not actively a teacher and I fear that many people will just believe it and his reputation for the rest of his life will be tarnished as a result. I have no idea if this will go to court but the news reporting on it can only make things worse because all it will do is put this in the minds of people who were previously completely unaware of it to begin with.
It's worth mentioning I live in a very liberal suburban town just outside of NYC.
It's also worth mentioning the definition of "sexual assault." (though the news anchor never used this term, its implications are relevant here.) I remember when I first heard the term years ago, I assumed it was just synonymous with rape, because that's exactly what it sounds like. We of course live in a day and age where false accusations have never been more prevalent, and if someone does anything from lightly gracing a girl to hugging them goodbye when they know them, it falls under the same category of severity as rape and murder.
This is relevant to this forum because this is 2024. Shit like this was not happening when I was growing up, I would have remembered it. It's never been worse than it is now. The younger generation has never been so mentally ill and so negatively infected by the predominant culture. I'm getting the fuck out of this country because it's only going to get worse and I spend time on the internet recommending others to do the same if they have the option to.
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