Obama Education Czar: failed to report homosexual statutory rape

I'm projecting a piece of how I think Jennings should have responded. It has nothing to do with any law: real or imagined.

So where do your assumptions reside? Clearly more was said than one line: ~"I hope you used a condom..." We all have made assumptions about what went on. Yours get to slide while you castigate others for theirs by making sweeping statements about narrow-mindedness, bigotry and rights-trampling.

 

thanks for illustrating my concern about you so clearly

 

It sounds so scary when you use the word judgment!!!!!!!!

Did you ever get away with something stupid, risky or dangerous? Does that make it right or smart or correct to try it again... much less done it the first time?

When the quality of someone's life is positively impacted by an anonymous sexual encounter.... something is wrong. I don't think that is something to romanticize or glamorize..

 

That's the thing. I'm not making a single assumption at all and based on simply the facts, there is not enough information to think that Jennings did anything other than what he believed to be the right thing at the time. He has since expressed that, given his experience in the two decades since, he might do things differently, which is enough for me to glean that he is thoughtful and self reflective.

The ultimate test of whether the conversation was appropriate is highlighted by Brewster's impression of the meeting. Brewster credits Jennings with helping him to achieve a positive self image, which is a credit to Jennings. Gay men have extreme difficulty with positive self image and if that is what Jennings gave to Brewster, it was the best gift he could have possibly given.

At the worst, Jennings encouraged a high risk individual to protect himself, which is something we should all be doing (both protecting ourselves and encouraging youngsters to do the same).

 

and I thought NOT using a condom was stupid, risky, and dangerous

 

It is. What's your point? I've clearly indicated that in my opinion Jennings had a professional obligation to say much more than "I hope you used a condom" in that situation.

You seem to think that anything more would be mere meddling. I say that adults have more responsibility-- especially one who has a professional responsibility like a teacher at a boarding school.

 

so what is it? it's not that simple. you've been in this thread for days and even you has yet to come up with the right thing to say.

 

Just curious giddy

How would you have counseled the guy?

Would you have even been able to have the conversation without judgment?

 

This thread is starting to bore me.

 

I'm not going to try and re-create what should have been an hour-long heart-to-heart intimate conversation between a young teacher and a mis-guided teen for a hostile message board.

Suffice to say that my recommended participation would not have been limited to active listening; there probably would have been a dash of judgment thrown in on behalf of reckless and dangerous behavioral choices.

Of course, my "speech" would cut across sexual orientation lines if that were appropriate. No 16 YO should be cruising for anonymous sex anytime, anywhere. Ah, I love the taste of judgment in the early morning...

Some of you have romanticized and extrapolated the outcome so that this brief encounter with Jennings set Brewster on the Happy Course in life. If you ask me, Brewster was just lucky the other guy wasn't someone like a Jeff Dahlmer-- who started killing at age 18, I believe.

I asked earlier if this is the kind of behavior that you would want your own child to display. Nobody really chimed in with "Sure, giddyup! We think that is an exciting lifestyle for my beloved child."

But I guess since it is someone else's child, we are just going to not bother. We are afraid of being labeled as judgmental. We have some mistaken notion that sexual curiosity should not be denied. I beg to differ. Too much is at stake.

 

unfortunately you and the editorial and faux news that you are defending have already done that numerous times

 

and you do what you do best

 

to continually smear someone innocent of any crime and assert that a boy was "cruising for anonymous sex".

 

Since when does somebody have to commit a crime to deserve criticism?

Well I forgot that most people go looking for the love of their life at bus stations...

 

are you saying that both OP-ED and FAUX NEWS whom you are defending never accused Jennings of failure to report statutory rape without first trying to get the facts?

Do people who ride public transportation just do it for anonymous sex?

And it's not some bathroom stall where some republican congressman waits for his victim.

 

You keep boxing me in as a defender of Fox News or the OP-ED writer. I've been discussing the purported events of that night mostly relying on the audio recording of Jennings' own re-telling. Some of those "facts" line up with the Fox and OP-ED version, so you can't just disqualify them.

You keep trying to convert this into a referendum on whether or not criminal charges should be filed while it is more about whether or not someone adequately responded to a situation. People are going to have divergent opinions about that, so get used to it.

In case you didn't know it, late-night, low-traffic public restrooms (bus stops, city parks, highway stops) have long been a meeting place for anonymous homosexual encounters... but it is nice of you to try and besmirch all users of public facilities like that in a vain attempt to bring me down!

 

except for the most important fact - the kid's age

the OP-ED and FOX NEWS and this thread based their content on criminal accusation. "Obama Education Czar: failed to report homosexual statutory rape". This is what the thread is. You are a defender of the thread and the primary source.

I'm not trying to bring you down anymore than you or the OP-ED or Faux News trying to bring Brewster or Jennings down.

 

There you go again! The age is only important if you are charging that Jennings failed to uphold the law. I'm asserting that he did a poor job outside of any legal infraction. I don't even care to pursue the legal issue. If it was a mistake, it was a naive one made by a young teacher. In fact, the whole inadequate response by Jennings would be forgotten were he not thumping his chest about it twenty years later as a triumphant moment.

I'm an accuser of Jennings not a defender of the thread-- except to say that the night's events are worth discussion rather than dismissing even though I can't cite the legal statute that was allegedly broken.

How does insinuating that I think that all bus riders are cruising for anonymous sexual hookups fit into that?

 

do you think this thread will even exist with the title: "Jennings tells at legal age of consent student to use a condom"?

just the same as insinuating that Jennings encourages his students to cruise for anonymous sexual hookups

 

Probably not but yours is not a good headline; how about: JENNINGS TELLS STUDENTS TO USE CONDOMS

How is ~"I hope you used a condom" anything but encouragement of the behavior exhibited? At best/worst it is constructive criticism!!