School Sex Scandal: Behind the Story

But I think the other reason why it was never taken seriously by the school authorities is because it reflects this sort of societal attitude that we have, which is that even though these cases are being reported to the police more than ever before, we the public still aren't really sure it's a crime. We think of a kid, a boy — certainly not a girl — but a boy who is sleeping with his teacher as being not a survivor of sexual abuse, but the luckiest kid in the tenth grade, and that this is an act to be celebrated, and kind of poked fun of.

Jason lost the opportunity to wrestle in college as a result of this incident?
He showed me letters from college scouts. If circumstances were different, he would otherwise be going into his senior year right now at some good school with his act together, but instead he's broke. He's got no career; he's got no money, no life really. And it was really striking to me that his girlfriend is 34 years old and has two kids. It definitely gives you pause. He says, "Oh no, it's more that I just don't relate to people my own age." But I think that's exactly the point: for him the boundaries between him and authority figures were totally erased, and it's changed his whole relationship with authority figures, with his peers.

How was it unique reporting in a high school environment?
It was very different, because high school is really like a sanctuary. It's this place where everybody feels protected, and so they feel very protective of it. So people were very reluctant to let me into that bubble. The other thing that was challenging about reporting a story about high school was getting in the mentality of high school, because life in high school is so super-charged with drama and intrigue, and so it took me a while to understand that some of these pivotal moments in these peoples' lives were things that we as adults might look back and not understand why they were so pivotal. For example, when Jason was suspended from school and not allowed to participate in the Mr. Hammonton Pageant, that was the straw that broke the camel's back for him. It took me some time to understand just what that meant to him, that this was the school's most coveted popularity contest, and that he, despite everything else, was still really intent on winning that crown and getting the validation that that would confer on him, and that in high school that's really, really important.

Did you find that people were regretful?
I think people still don't understand what happened to Jason. They won't understand it until they read the story. I think even his closest friends are not gonna understand until they read it. Boys by nature, in general, don't really share their feelings with one another. I'm not sure that he ever really laid it out to even his closest friends in a way they would understand, and his friends all made reference to the way he cracked up and stuff, but I'm just not sure they really got the emotional impact.

And I'll tell you also, the teachers, and the adults that I talked to in this story — people who really should know better — even they were a little curious about why I would pay so much attention to this particular case. A couple of them made allusions to him being kind of a troubled kid, and the teacher being credible. And the very idea that he was a troubled kid, that was enough to make people think that maybe his story wasn't worthy of being believed. I think it gave me a sense of how hard it must have been to be Jason, and probably still is. You know, these are the people who are entrusted with protecting these children, and instead they all very resolutely turned their backs.

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