danielray Posted October 11, 2011 Share Posted October 11, 2011 While this is tacky and demonstrates poor judgement, there was nothing illegal or predatory about the situation. 18 is a legal adult the world over and many countries earlier. If you are able to be trusted with the maturity to vote or go to war or stand trial for criminal actions at 18, you are certainly able to handle such a situation. Again, extremely poor judgement, certainly tacky... but nothing illegal. Participating in a youth activity in a role that might directly interface with youth is probably not the best move from a PR perspective, but the way this situation is described in this thread certainly seems to blow things way out of proportion. 6 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tom Brace Posted October 11, 2011 Share Posted October 11, 2011 While this is tacky and demonstrates poor judgement, there was nothing illegal or predatory about the situation. 18 is a legal adult the world over and many countries earlier. If you are able to be trusted with the maturity to vote or go to war or stand trial for criminal actions at 18, you are certainly able to handle such a situation. Again, extremely poor judgement, certainly tacky... but nothing illegal. Participating in a youth activity in a role that might directly interface with youth is probably not the best move from a PR perspective, but the way this situation is described in this thread certainly seems to blow things way out of proportion. Daniel...you got a daughter? 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jaylogan Posted October 11, 2011 Share Posted October 11, 2011 Daniel...you got a daughter? Are men with daughters the only people allowed to have fair opinions? 9 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tom Brace Posted October 11, 2011 Share Posted October 11, 2011 Are men with daughters the only people allowed to have fair opinions? Nope....but it matters when it comes to an opinion. One opinion is based on rational logical thought. One...yeah, not so much. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
perc2100 Posted October 11, 2011 Share Posted October 11, 2011 While this is tacky and demonstrates poor judgement, there was nothing illegal or predatory about the situation. 18 is a legal adult the world over and many countries earlier. If you are able to be trusted with the maturity to vote or go to war or stand trial for criminal actions at 18, you are certainly able to handle such a situation. Again, extremely poor judgement, certainly tacky... but nothing illegal. Participating in a youth activity in a role that might directly interface with youth is probably not the best move from a PR perspective, but the way this situation is described in this thread certainly seems to blow things way out of proportion. If you fail to recognize the psychological harm a teacher can inflict on a current student by sending sexual texts to them (regardless of age), then I guess no amount of explaining will help. In the same manner that a manager should not make sexual advances on his secretary, or, really, NO WOMAN (or man, for that manner) should be subjected to potentially unwanted and downright creepy and offensive personal texts, what Moody did was morally reprehensible. Illegal? Apparently not in that state. Correct behavior for a teacher? Never. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DrillmanSop06 Posted October 12, 2011 Author Share Posted October 12, 2011 While this is tacky and demonstrates poor judgement, there was nothing illegal or predatory about the situation. 18 is a legal adult the world over and many countries earlier. If you are able to be trusted with the maturity to vote or go to war or stand trial for criminal actions at 18, you are certainly able to handle such a situation. Again, extremely poor judgement, certainly tacky... but nothing illegal. Participating in a youth activity in a role that might directly interface with youth is probably not the best move from a PR perspective, but the way this situation is described in this thread certainly seems to blow things way out of proportion. ^^^ Not a teacher. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
perc2100 Posted October 12, 2011 Share Posted October 12, 2011 For facts... For an innocent child to be harmed, they must be a victim. I would fight tooth and nail to keep an innocent child from harm. I would fight tooth and nail to keep anyone who is innocent from being harmed. Also, the attribute of being a student doesn't automatically make one a victim. the article posted here stated that texts of the sexual nature did not start until after the student's 18th birthday. Not knowing how familiar you are with high school logistics, typically if a student is in HS band as an 18 year old, that would likely make them a senior and likely make them a multi-year veteran in the program. While unknown at this time, it is likely that Moody had known the student previous to her 18th birthday. I.E. it's unlikely Moody had never known her previous to her 18th birthday (i.e. legal age). As for insinuating that the student who was propositioned is not a victim, that kind of smacks of the typical male naivety when it comes to this sort of thing, and the first thing I thought of was the guy at a rape trial saying, "but your honor, she wanted it." The FACT is that this person of authority took advantage of one of his students, and is no different than an office manager smacking the butt of his secretary. The facts that we have read have shown an unethical occurrence; not one that is illegal, or predatory. It was wrong and it appears that the teacher paid for their unethical behavior by losing their job. I don't see anything to suggest that this teacher will repeat. this may very well be, but unless you are a criminal psychologist who has studied this incident and interviewed Moody, I don't think you are in any opinion to make that assumption. A repeat offender has to start somewhere, and while I agree that we don't know if Moody will do this type of reprehensibly heinous act to another young-adult/student when he is of position of authority over him, it's not the best idea to give him the opportunity. As a teacher, I would NEVER recommend my student go to a corps that would employ someone with this background and, quite the opposite, I would fell obligated to tell a parent all of this information so they can make the decision with all of the facts. As a parent, there is no way in hell I would let my child march in an organization that employees someone with this background. What does is say about an organization who hires someone who is proven to be prone to making horrible decisions: not exactly a vote of confidence for Teal Sound IMO. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jjeffeory Posted October 12, 2011 Share Posted October 12, 2011 (edited) the article posted here stated that texts of the sexual nature did not start until after the student's 18th birthday. Not knowing how familiar you are with high school logistics, typically if a student is in HS band as an 18 year old, that would likely make them a senior and likely make them a multi-year veteran in the program. While unknown at this time, it is likely that Moody had known the student previous to her 18th birthday. I.E. it's unlikely Moody had never known her previous to her 18th birthday (i.e. legal age). As for insinuating that the student who was propositioned is not a victim, that kind of smacks of the typical male naivety when it comes to this sort of thing, and the first thing I thought of was the guy at a rape trial saying, "but your honor, she wanted it." The FACT is that this person of authority took advantage of one of his students, and is no different than an office manager smacking the butt of his secretary. this may very well be, but unless you are a criminal psychologist who has studied this incident and interviewed Moody, I don't think you are in any opinion to make that assumption. A repeat offender has to start somewhere, and while I agree that we don't know if Moody will do this type of reprehensibly heinous act to another young-adult/student when he is of position of authority over him, it's not the best idea to give him the opportunity. As a teacher, I would NEVER recommend my student go to a corps that would employ someone with this background and, quite the opposite, I would feel obligated to tell a parent all of this information so they can make the decision with all of the facts. As a parent, there is no way in hell I would let my child march in an organization that employs someone with this background. What does it say about an organization who hires someone who is proven to be prone to making horrible decisions: not exactly a vote of confidence for Teal Sound IMO. Whew, feel better? Nothing new here for me to really comment on. There's just a LOT of FUD and concern, which is totally understandable. I share your concerns but it still doesn't change anything. The behaviors you describe are bad, but they're not that of a child predator. This is some other animal. BTW, I didn't insinuate that the young woman was not a victim. I said that I do not know; I don't know the facts. All I know is that I do not know everything and I am glad that this wasn't an issue between an adult and a child. That's the most important thing to me. I was in high school as an adult and I certainly was aware that I was an adult in high school and I acted differently because of that. I don't know the deal here other than what has been reported, but I wouldn't assume that the teacher took advantage of the student just because of the student/teacher relationship. If there had been a complaint from the student mentioned in the article, then we would know more. It's already pretty damming to the teacher. I'm glad that it wasn't worse. ...and please don't assume that you know about my typical "male naivety when it comes to this sort of thing". You don't know what things people may have gone through on here. Edited October 12, 2011 by jjeffeory 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
danielray Posted October 12, 2011 Share Posted October 12, 2011 If you fail to recognize the psychological harm a teacher can inflict on a current student by sending sexual texts to them (regardless of age), then I guess no amount of explaining will help. In the same manner that a manager should not make sexual advances on his secretary, or, really, NO WOMAN (or man, for that manner) should be subjected to potentially unwanted and downright creepy and offensive personal texts, what Moody did was morally reprehensible. Illegal? Apparently not in that state. Correct behavior for a teacher? Never. Psychological harm from this? Did you read the texts? While inappropriate and tacky, they were still quite PG and no where near the level of texts (or images) many high school age kids are sending and receiving. Without getting into the politics of it... but just as a simple cultural observation... I have had offices in many countries, but only for the US did we have a sexual harassment policy. Interesting enough, the US was the only place where we had any issues with sexual harassment at all. Why? In other cultures, women are taught to essentially nip it in the bud, to make their opinion very clear upfront and to look out for themselves. As a result, incidents are so rare that there really is no need for policy. What I am getting at, is one of the challenges of American culture is the idea that they system is able to more effectively resolve problems than individuals, which inhibits the development of skills and confidence necessary for self-reliance at a younger age. Bottom line... if we are concerned that young adults may be psychologically damaged due to such interaction, it is a cultural failure. Seriously. We are becoming too weak, too sensitive and not developing essential skills in youth that would enable them to deal with such situations effectively. Some of the claims that an individual such as this may be considered a predator or a threat to youth are a bit extreme. He has not demonstrated either of those risks, but simply that he has rather poor judgement. As mentioned before, what this discussion does highlight is that we may not be preparing youth well enough or helping them to develop essential life skills. Maybe this is something that the activity can help in some way to address? 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
danielray Posted October 12, 2011 Share Posted October 12, 2011 Daniel...you got a daughter? No, but I do have a sister who got involved (during her senior year in high school, after she turned 18) with a guy who was a bit older than her and working as the brass instructor/assistant band director for her marching band. My parents chose to have an open discussion with both of them about it and treat her in a mature and responsible way in the hopes that she would act in a similar way. I guess they were smart enough to understand that if it was treated as something forbidden, it would still likely happen in secret... and probably in a way that was different than what they had hoped. They married a few years later and have 3 kids... all solid brass players, of course. Looking back on this, I do believe it was the right approach. Treat young adults as adults and they will behave as such. Treat them like children and they will behave as children. Once again, young people in America are too insulated from genuine responsibility and are not given the skills and support necessary to transition into adulthood as effectively as they should. 7 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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