When is it OK to touch?

Experts say episodes of teacher-student sexual misconduct usually don’t happen out of the blue.

They’re often preceded by activities that otherwise might fall in the range of a teacher’s duties — such as counseling, tutoring or coaching.

Teacher-student sexual misconduct is a hot topic in Winston-Salem because of recent allegations against teachers, and law-enforcement complaints that the public-school system hasn’t properly handled them.

Everyone agrees that teachers and students shouldn’t be in sexual relationships. But what about a pat on the back? What about a teacher and student “friending” each other on Facebook? What about communication on a cell phone? What about the kid who needs a hug because his dog died?

The boundaries of conduct are a complicated issue that teachers and other school officials must discuss in depth, said Nan Stein, senior research scientist at the Wellesley Centers for Women in Massachusetts.

“Don’t have the school attorney come in and read teachers the riot act,” Stein said. “I’m talking about having teachers come together and hash this out. Tap their intelligence and say, ‘This is not clear-cut. We have to talk about it.’ Professional development should focus on these ambiguous situations.”

Local school officials say that schools can be safe without being cold.

The question of touch “is a difficult question to face, because you don’t want schools that are cold and impersonal,” said Theo Helm, a spokesman for the Winston-Salem/ Forsyth County Schools. “But clearly any type of touching or other contact that is remotely sexual is not appropriate.”

The State Bureau of Investigation is probing the local school system’s handling of some recent allegations of misconduct and whether district officials violated state law by having the school system’s attorney decide whether to report some allegations to law enforcement. Prosecutors say state law requires principals to notify law enforcement of potential misconduct.

Wiley Middle School teacher Jason Ford was the victim of a false accusation made last May and cleared up only last week. In Ford’s case, police said students retaliated against Ford because he had disciplined them.

Steve Waddell, who taught at Parkland High School, was fired last April after he was charged with taking indecent liberties with a student and misdemeanor sexual battery.

In February, the state’s Task Force on Teacher Ethics and Licensure issued a 41-page report that made 15 specific recommendations for raising ethical standards in teaching. Among them are tougher background checks, including fingerprinting; licensing for substitute teachers and teaching assistants; and better training in ethics for teachers and other school personnel.

It’s about time for changes, said Dan Wishnietsky, a math professor at Winston-Salem State University. Wishnietsky undertook a survey in 1991 to find out how much sexual harassment was going on at the high school level in North Carolina.

Wishnietsky’s survey of 148 students found that 43 percent had experienced insulting looks, gestures or comments from teachers. About 17 percent of the students said the misconduct included sexual touching, and 13 percent recorded sexual intercourse with a teacher.

A 2004 report by the U.S. Department of Education said the most accurate data found that about 10 percent of students in grades 8-11 experienced unwanted teacher sexual conduct, with about 7 percent of the total reporting unwanted sexual contact with a teacher.

Wishnietsky said that in his own survey of 65 North Carolina superintendents, the superintendents noted only 26 cases of teachers being disciplined for sexual harassment.

“What surprised me was how many students claimed to be a victim and how many administrators say there are no problems,” Wishnietsky said.

Stein found in her research that the teachers more likely to be offenders were in subjects that included coaching and music and drama instruction.

“These individuals have a lot of license in the kids’ minds to ask personal questions,” Stein said. The teacher may ask why students are not running as fast as they usually do, or playing the violin as well as they usually do, she said. The teacher may ask if there’s a problem at home, or with a boyfriend, or with grades.

“That opens the door to questions that are inappropriate,” Stein said. The teacher has the power to write letters of recommendation for summer festivals and scholarships.

Students develop crushes on teachers, too.

“And the unscrupulous adult is the one who takes advantage of that and doesn’t put up pretty clear signals that we do not do this,” Stein said.

Should teachers ever touch a student? Katie Cornetto, an attorney with the N.C. Board of Education, says no — although she said that is not a rule she thinks the state would ever mandate for schools.

“The educators in the state that I have worked with have a passion for students not being hurt in any way,” she said. “I don’t think there is a culture of tolerance. But parents, other teachers and students can help in identifying the signs. I would advise a client to never touch. This is not a physician relationship. You do not know how it is going to be received, and the unconsented contact should never happen.”

Stein, who is a former teacher, said, “Touch is extremely important. That is, touching in public and touching parts that are unambiguous. I am opposed to rules that say you can’t touch anybody for anything.”

The student’s age makes a big difference, she said. Young kids often need to get and give hugs.

“When a girl starts to wear a bra, touching on the shoulder can be problematic because that is where the bra strap is,” Stein said.

The Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Schools do thorough background checks when hiring teachers, but that doesn’t include fingerprint checks, Helm said. The school system has policies that forbid teachers’ inappropriate contact and other behaviors with students.

The system strongly discourages teachers from using social media or the Internet to communicate with students, although it does not forbid such contact categorically.

Trip Jeffers, the president of the Forsyth County Association of Educators, said that some teachers “in this climate are even shy about allowing students to give them a hug — and rightly so.”

“Obviously there is a difference between appropriate contact with a student and lewd and lascivious behavior,” he said. The vast majority of teachers, he said, are “rule-followers and have appropriate mentoring relationships” with students.

“At the same time, because we want our children to be safe, we have to be vigilant and watchful,” Jeffers said. “We can notice more readily the difference between innocuous attention and wrongdoing.”

wyoung@wsjournal.com
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