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Improper Fraternization In Schools Happens, But It Could Happen Less Often

Hearing about incidents of student-teacher fraternization does not surprise David Campbell, a 40-year veteran of teaching.

“[I]t’s the natural kind of thing that happens in every institution I’ve been in,” Campbell said.

Campbell said he believes “everything should be on the record” when it comes to situations like this, even when the teacher rebuffs the students romantic attractions. However, that does not happen often, according to Campbell, with incidents often being chalked up as normal school life.

While everyone at the school may have known about it, such relationships were not talked about among the faculty of the schools, Campbell said.

A lack of training on how to handle the situations are often to blame, Campbell told Essential Pittsburgh. Such training was often hidden in training manuals or was not properly taught. Campbell suggests such preparation should be taught to new teachers early in their career.

“They’re taught to do a lesson, which begins at the bell and ends at the bell,” Campbell said of current teacher training.

Over the years, an institution of “pass the trash” has been informally adopted by some districts, whereby teachers found to be inappropriately fraternizing with students would be asked to resign and then be given a recommendation to find work at another school without lasting punishment.

State laws aimed at cracking down on such practices have been implemented in Pennsylvania.

Campbell also holds that a lack of proper counselors is to blame for the recent up tick in misconduct allegations.

“You can’t be a counselor for 300, 400 students,” Campbell said of the workload faced by those expected to oversee the mental wellbeing of America’s children.

“We have enough laws, but we really need to take these young people and say look, they have no one to talk to,” Campbell said. “They get into these kinds of situations because they have no one to talk to.”

More Essential Pittsburgh segments can be heard here.

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