Ayersville High School’s decision to bar a student from spring sports because of “moral infractions” related at least in part to an affair he had with one of his married teachers isn’t sitting well with an area group fighting sexual abuse.
“I think what they’re doing is outrageous,” said Claudia Vercellotti, co-director of SNAP – Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests and other church leaders.
Ms. Vercellotti said she fears Ayersville’s decision will lead teenagers who have been sexually abused to be less likely to come forward, feeling that they might be blamed or punished by people who say it takes two to tango.
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The sex between Long and the student was a crime only because she was his teacher. The age of consent in Ohio is 16.
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Even if the student had violated school codes in other ways – sheriff’s investigators interviews with his mother indicate “a little bit of juvenile trouble involving a girl” recently – the affair with the teacher should not be considered in discipline, she said.
“I suspect this student feels a tremendous amount of guilt and pain that will manifest itself in other ways over his teacher being sent to jail,” Ms. Vercellotti wrote. “I also suspect that other students have already held him in contempt in the court of teenage public opinion. He needs your help, not your condemnation.”
