'It can ruin my career': Teacher told teen to keep sexual relationship a secret, court hears : canada

[-] kent_eh@lemmy.ca 45 points 1 year ago

If you recognize that something can "ruin your career" maybe the smart move is to not fucking do that.

[+] Rocket@lemmy.ca -24 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Good advice for the olden days when careers were only ruined for good reason, and this specific case as contains one of those good reasons. But in this modern witch hunt era we're currently living, doing anything can potentially ruin your career. Someone snapped a picture of you enjoying a beer at a party? You're done. I assume everything I do will ruin my career. If this comment weren't anonymous, it no doubt would have already ruined my career as soon as I pressed submit.

[-] 21Cabbage@lemmynsfw.com 20 points 1 year ago

I see your point, probably not the thread to bring it up.

[-] bipmi@beehaw.org 10 points 1 year ago

I agree careers get ruined more often over silly things now, but its not anywhere close to a modern issue. People have been getting some form of "cancelled" for pretty much all of time, sometimes for a good reason and sometimes for a bad reason. If you really live your life in constant terror over the idea, maybe you should become self-sufficient and move off the grid. Thats kinda the only solution to the problem. People are social animals and social animals sometimes make stupid social decisions such as "cancelling" one another and its just kinda unavoidable.

[-] Rocket@lemmy.ca -1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

If you really live your life in constant terror over the idea

If there is any to be terrified of, it would be having only one career. Even if there is no risk of being "cancelled", there are many other threats to careers that are completely beyond one's control. No normally functioning person would need to be worried about having a career ruined as they would never put all of their eggs in one career basket in the first place.

Granted, a full grown adult who thinks having a sexual relationship with a teenage student is a good idea is not normally functioning.

[-] some_guy@kbin.social 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

I’ve never once wondered whether or not the things I’m doing could be misconstrued in a way that would end my career.

What kind of weird shit are you into?

[-] Rocket@lemmy.ca 0 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Why would anyone be worried about their career? They are a dime a dozen. Recognizing that a career could end does not imply worry.

What kind of weird shit are you into?

The weirdest! You know, things like walking down the street, using a computer, driving a car.

[-] Blamemeta@lemm.ee 29 points 1 year ago

Remember kids, if someone tells you to keep secrets from your parents, you should tell your parents immediately.

[-] bigkix@lemm.ee 12 points 1 year ago

So, basically he is being criminally charged despite no longer being her teacher and while age of consent in Canada is 16 (unless older person is in position of power)? Disguisting as it is, why is he being criminally charged? This case has no legs, right?

[-] StillPaisleyCat@startrek.website 39 points 1 year ago

There are exceptions. Someone who was up until recently a teacher may fall into the category of being in a position of trust or authority towards the minor. Without knowing the legal precedents, it’s hard to know how much of an edge case this is.

From the JusticeThe following factors may be taken into account when determining whether a relationship is exploitative of the young person:

From the* Justice Canada webpage on Age of Consent*

Sexual exploitation A 16 or 17 year old cannot consent to sexual activity if:

their sexual partner is in position of trust or authority towards them, for example their teacher or coach

the young person is dependent on their sexual partner, for example for care or support the relationship between the young person and their sexual partner is exploitative

The following factors may be taken into account when determining whether a relationship is exploitative of the young person:

the young person's age

the age difference between the young person and their partner

how the relationship developed (for example, quickly, secretly, or over the internet)

whether the partner may have controlled or influenced the young person

[-] m0darn@lemmy.ca 9 points 1 year ago

To me it's the fact that he abused his position of trust to initiate a private relationship that makes me feel that a crime may have been committed. (Due to compromised consent).

Also there may be an argument to be made that a highschool teacher remains in a position of authority while a former student completes post secondary education. As the former student is likely to perceive that a former teacher has potential influence over scholarships/bursaries or want to use them as a positive reference for a summer internship after their first year or something.

[-] blindsight@beehaw.org 3 points 1 year ago

Rule of thumb is 1 year separation from the position of authority. At least, that's what's in the training from the Occupational Therapy regulatory body.

[-] m0darn@lemmy.ca 3 points 1 year ago

Yeah makes sense with my second point

[+] betwixthewires@lemmy.basedcount.com -44 points 1 year ago

I'd say no, but the world is going crazy, so probably the guy is going to get the book thrown at him. At the rate things are going they'll raise the age of consent to 30 and make it illegal if the other person earns less money than you.

[-] grte@lemmy.ca 45 points 1 year ago

World going crazy? Who let the libertarians out. This guy was her teacher months prior and was a teacher to other children. He is a predator.

[-] OneOrTheOtherDontAskMe@lemmy.world 12 points 1 year ago

Yeah where's the defense of this coming from?

Comsenting adults, fine. Consenting adults or close enough in range of statutory laws, morally dicey but I guess it's socially acceptable. Add the fact that they were your teacher, ever, and it crosses ANOTHER line and I don't think we can lump that many "exceptions" together without it being a big ol' shit bundle.

[-] betwixthewires@lemmy.basedcount.com 0 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

But they're all behind the line. If we want to pass a clearly worded ordinance about every allowed and disallowed behavior in society then this is the game we are playing. It's not defending the guy, it's pointing out that if you want to live under clear laws, you can't just blur up the lines when it suits you.

Is the dude a scumbag? Probably. But I've lived long enough to see things go from legal but totally not OK, to illegal as it should be, to let's make everything illegal because someone else doesn't like it, and I fully expect one day that someone's going to try to say you can't fuck someone more than 3 years your junior no matter how old they are.

What this dude did is absolutely not socially acceptable, but what is socially acceptable is just fashion. Was it immoral? I don't know, did he lie to her about what their deal was together? It was most certainly not illegal, and nobody was coerced.

[-] m0darn@lemmy.ca 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Not the person you were responding to.

StillPaisleyCat@startrek.website shared this legal resource from the Justice Canada webpage on Age of Consent

To me it's the fact that he abused his position of trust to initiate a private relationship that makes me feel that a crime may have been committed. (Due to compromised consent).

Also there may be an argument to be made that a highschool teacher remains in a position of authority while a former student completes post secondary education. As the former student is likely to perceive that a former teacher has potential influence over scholarships/bursaries or want to use them as a positive reference for a summer internship after their first year or something.

There's a reasonable chance of conviction so charges are appropriate.

[-] Fogle@lemmy.ca 9 points 1 year ago

And actively propositioned her on her last day. Homie was waiting.

[-] ramjambamalam@lemmy.ca 1 points 1 year ago

After her last day of school, before her last day of exams. Sounds like a position of trust to me... Did she even have her final marks in his class while they were texting each other?

[-] argv_minus_one@beehaw.org -1 points 1 year ago

Must've been mistaken about exactly how long he needed to wait.

[-] prole@beehaw.org 22 points 1 year ago

Just because you left your teaching job before fucking your 16 year old ex-student, that doesn't magically make you not a sexual predator.

[-] betwixthewires@lemmy.basedcount.com -5 points 1 year ago

He didn't leave his teaching job.

I don't necessarily disagree with you. But it also doesn't magically make you a sexual predator either. We have rules to prevent sexual predation, such as that you can't fuck your students and someone has to be over a certain age to have sex with an adult. From my view this is all panty wringing and the dude broke no laws. Maybe he is a predator, maybe the laws should be changed. Or maybe we shouldn't infantilize sexually active mature human beings and maybe we ought to teach our daughters about dudes like this.

[-] ParsnipWitch@feddit.de 1 points 1 year ago

Or maybe we should make dudes not be able to do something like this. Seems like the better way to handle it.

[-] xc2215x@lemmy.world 9 points 1 year ago

Maybe not have sex with the student.

[-] autotldr@lemmings.world 8 points 1 year ago

This is the best summary I could come up with:

A teacher at Western Canada High School initiated a sexual relationship with a 17-year-old he'd taught months earlier, a Calgary judge was told Wednesday.

A previous court ruling connected to the case shows Selby's lawyer plans to "demonstrate that the relationship between the parties was not exploitative and that there existed no power imbalance in favour of the accused."

The Calgary Board of Education (CBE) would only say Selby is "unassigned from teaching duties and not actively at work at this time."

Amy says she and Selby continued a sexual relationship on-and-off over the next two years until she began to feel uncomfortable about their dynamic.

That June, Amy was writing final exams ahead of graduation, and testified Selby asked her to come visit him in his classroom, which he also called his office.

Almost immediately, Amy says Selby began lecturing her, saying things like "You cannot tell anyone about this, people could get the wrong idea … I could get in a lot of trouble."

The original article contains 1,219 words, the summary contains 166 words. Saved 86%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!

[-] uninvitedguest@lemmy.ca 4 points 1 year ago

Not a great one this time. Loses too much

[-] Backspacecentury@kbin.social 5 points 1 year ago

I knew Jay years ago. Have to say that this is.. not surprising.

Whether the position of power/consent is proven or not, he definitely shouldn’t be in a teaching position if he can’t keep his hands off teenagers.

[-] Nougat@kbin.social 4 points 1 year ago

Guy's trying to cultivate that Rasputin look.

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