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In Issue 1070, Sabrina Rubin Erdely tells the story of a 15-year-old star athlete whose world was shattered after an affair with a teacher at his New Jersey high school (read it here: "Sex, Lies and Phys Ed"). The student, Jason Eickmeyer, is one of several subjects of After School, a Powerhouse Pictures Entertainment documentary that will be completed by July 2009. The Chris Barrett-directed film features interviews with Nancy Grace, Rita Cosby, Charol Shakeshaft and more (check out an exclusive clip above). Erdely recently spoke with Rolling Stone about the challenges of reporting the story, and what went wrong in that tiny Jersey town:
Was it hard for Jason when he was telling the
story?
It was very hard on him. Our first interview, we sat down and
talked for six hours. He knows that this has affected him
profoundly, but he doesn't want to be portrayed as some kind of
victim. What became very clear was just how damaged he was, even
more damaged than he'd like to admit. So we sat there for six hours
and we just got deeper and deeper into the story and he was all
over the place. It took me forever to figure out the narrative and
all the people in it because it was all just kind of swimming in
his head. He'd never really told anybody the full story from
beginning to end, and then after that first interview he then
avoided my call for the next six weeks. He completely refused to
talk to me. He just flipped out.
Just unearthing all those painful
memories?
It was too much for him. And there's of course the terrifying idea
that not only did he just unburden himself of all this stuff, but
it's gonna be read eventually by millions of readers. It just took
a lot of persistence and reassurance to even get him back on the
phone in the first place, and in the meantime I really became very
concerned with his mental health. I wound up talking to his mom and
to his sister. I mean this is a kid who's not currently in therapy
because he has no money for it, and he has no one to talk to about
it. So he opened up to me and he was just like an open wound.
Did the insular nature of this town pose a huge
problem?
This story was a really hard story to report. I mean the first
problem was just finding the right person to talk to me in the
first place. I spent two months making calls and talking to kids'
moms and victims' advocates and lawyers and liaisons — it was
really maddening. All the boys that I approached said no, or their
moms said no, but along the line I was led to some people who were
working on a documentary about exactly this issue, called After
School. It's being produced by Owen LaFave, who is the
ex-husband of the notorious Debra LaFave, the former beauty queen
who was convicted in Florida of having sex with one of her
students. I spoke to the folks at the documentary and they said,
"We have exactly the boy you're looking for."
The second problem was when Jason flipped out and ran off, but then the third problem really was the town itself. It's a small rural town where everyone knows everyone else. So everyone was fearful of talking and airing their dirty laundry, and I think that's in some ways why this whole saga happened in the first place. Perhaps they were willing to turn a blind eye to something rather than make waves.
Could anybody explain why Traci Tapp wasn't investigated
or talked to sooner?
It seems incredible doesn't it? There were two reasons. The first
is that they just liked her so much. She was the coolest teacher in
school. Teachers adored her, students adored her, she was so nice
and everybody loved her, and so nobody wanted to really believe all
of these rumors. And even when it was right in their faces —
I mean, the idea that she moved in with a student days after he
graduated — even that wasn't enough to get anybody to do
anything. In fact, I said in my story that like their reaction was
really telling. Instead of talking about, "Does this seem in
appropriate?" they were saying, "Oh isn't it sad? Why can't she
find somebody her own age?"
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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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