Alabama State Senator Cam Ward has dropped a bill, the Educator-Student Interaction Training Act, that would require teachers to have one hour of training per year on not having inappropriate relations with their students.
The bill would also include training on social media interactions with students, interactions outside of school, and the use of corporal punishment.
The bill has gotten a lot of social media backlash from educators. Here is one reaction tweet:
The Educator-Student Interaction Training Act is a waste of the government's time @SenCamWard. Do you really think so poorly of teachers?
— Crystal (@cryswatford) March 22, 2016
We have had a surge in these cases recently. A 2014 study found that Alabama leads the nation in cases of teacher-student sexual abuse. There were 25 teachers arrested that year for having sex with students.
We had one of these cases make the national news. Alicia Gray, a former math teacher, released a video apology for having sex with a 14-year-old student. It’s not just women either, men are getting caught with students as well.
24-year-old Trey Alton Stinson and 23-year-old Devin Rumal Robinson were arrested. Stinson was involved with a seventeen-year-old, and Robinson was involved with a 16-year-old. The penalty could be up to 20 years in prison and registration as a sex offender.
Last July, a teacher married the student he had been messing with. Matthew Shane Webster had been with 17-year-old Amy Cox. She was 18 when they got married. The charges have not been dropped, but since spouses can’t testify against each other it’s going to be hard to continue the case.
Senator Ward probably had good intentions, but the thought of having to TRAIN teachers to not have sex with students seems like a total waste of time and money. This class could easily be 5 seconds long: Teachers, don’t screw your students! Class dismissed.
Featured image by kelth elwood via flickr.com, available under Creative Commons 2.0 license.
