Bad Love

Diane West, 52, was a Bayonne special ed teacher and guidance counselor whose affinity for young teenage boys went on almost entirely unchecked and unremarked upon for over 20 years at Bayonne High. She was accused of statutory rape in 2001, left her job, and finally pleaded guilty to sexual assault in 2005, but got off with just probation after her ex-colleagues and friends helped convince a judge of her good character.

The Times has a good piece on West's career as a teacher and counselor, and on her extra-curricular activities, which include groping a 13 year-old at a school dance in 1980, marrying a suicidal recent Bayonne High graduate in 1985 (when she was 31) who got her pregnant when he was in 11th grade, divorcing him in 1996, and then in 2001 taking up with one of her own son's friends, a 15 year-old whose parents for some reason allowed to move into her house.

What is this lady's problem? Well, for one thing, she says that she had an abusive boyfriend when she was 14, and that she got pregnant and gave her baby up for adoption. I think it's pretty obvious that this early relationship was the start of her fixation on young teenage boys, and it came up in the court's psychological evaluation of her.

And she also uses her difficult teenage experiences as an explanation for her adult behavior. According to the Times, "In talking about the relationships with a court-appointed psychiatrist last year, Ms. West said that when she took up with Steve and Chris, she thought it was acceptable because she had had a child at 14. Later, she said, she realized teenage boys can suffer emotional damage if they become sexually involved with an adult, especially an authority figure like a teacher."

No shit, Sherlock! But apparently her own boss saw her criminal sexual involvement with boys as just a foible, a part of West's personality, and not a dangerous and harmful act. “Diane has a thing for young boys,” said her former principal Daniel Doyle in a court statement.

West herself refused to be interviewed for the article.

Posted by Amy at 12:38 PM | Permalink

41-year old "cool mom" Silvia Johnson was sentenced to 30 years in prison today. A wallflower in high school, it wasn't until recently that Johnson found the key to popularity with boys - booze and sex. She ran her own personal after-school program for her daughter's friends weekly for almost a year, providing alcohol and drugs to 8 teenage boys, and having sex with 5 of them.

She also snuck methamphetamines into her daughter's breakfast before school to "pep her up."

Johnson pleaded guilty in July to two misdemeanor counts of sexual assault and nine felony counts of contributing to the delinquency of a minor. Unfortunately, her original sentencing in September had to be postponed when her jeep flipped - while a 14-year old was driving it.

Silvia, the saddest thing about this story is that most of us figure out by our late teens that sleeping with boys doesn't make them like you.

.

Posted by Emily at 03:04 PM | Permalink

Lynnette Clark, 37, of Gainesville, GA has been charged with child molestation after it emerged that she was carrying on a 2 year sexual relationship with a 15 year-old boy, a friend of her own teenage son's. Members of the boy's family say that Clark is pregnant with the boy's child, and that they have been married. The boy, who began this alleged relationship when he was 13, lives with his grandmother, who as his legal guardian received notice of the marriage from the county.

15 sounds a little young to get legally married, even in Georgia, doesn't it? Turns out that Georgia state law permits marriages at younger than the usual age of 16 when the bride is pregnant. Pragmatism at its best.

The grandmother says she permitted her grandson to spend a lot of weekends over at Clark's house because he was friends with her son. I wonder what that poor teenage Clark kid has to say about what was going on with his friend and mom after the boys had stopped playing on the Xbox and it was time for bed.

Posted by Amy at 11:51 AM | Permalink