Has there been a study of teachers who had sex with their students, and what subjects they taught?

[bbernardini]

My mind works in mysterious ways, yes.

I'll start this with a disclaimer: I'm a teacher, specifically of music. I am in no way speaking ill of teachers as a whole when I ask this question. Additionally, I in no way condone this sort of behavior.

On fark.com this morning, there were at least two stories about teachers who had sex with their students. It seems that these sort of stories are coming to light more and more these days. One of my good friends is a gym teacher, and he's always giving me grief about music teachers having inappropriate relationships with their students. So, I got to wondering...has anybody ever compiled the data on these offenders to determine which subject area has been "represented" more than any other? I think it might make for an interesting study to see what contribution, if any, a particular subject area might have toward causing this behavior. Is it just stupidity? Opportunity? Do certain subject areas allow for more physical or mental connection? (For example, discussions of Shakespeare's romantic tragedies vs. the economic upheaval of the Eastern Bloc in the early 20th century...which one is more romantic?)

Just a thought. If you actually write a journal article about this, I want credit for the idea.

[pitohui]

1. i thought coaches got more than music teachers

but hell i went to an all girls high school, maybe it's different with guys or coed

i think our music teacher tried to be interesting but i don't think anyone was, you know, actually interested

[femmocrat]

2. I think some of them have taught Learning Support....

at least Mary Kay Letourneau did.

Coaching/PE would be my guess, but then it's just a guess. Interesting question!

[begin_within]

3. I can't remember exactly what the subject was, but

they were up all night cramming for it.

[TZ]

4. I doubt there is any real correlation on subject matter

I happen to know personally one teacher who did this multiple times and he was a science teacher where the big project in the class was building Rube Goldberg devices, not at all "romantic".

[bbernardini]

5. Well, I suppose that depends on how you define "romantic," now doesn't it?

;)

[struggle4progress]

6. I read an article by a college administrator about twenty years ago

in which he claimed that (at least in his experience) the artsy crowd on campus was more prone to affairs with students than the science crowd, but he had no survey data. The claim makes sense from an psychological perspective, because the arts often emphasize self-expression and emotional issues, which one might expect to create an environment more conducive to sexual interest than (say) a class room relationship based on studying conductivity bands in semiconductors.

But just because the claim might make sense doesn't mean the claim is true. Over the years I have become aware of several cases of people marrying their students: one was a biologist, one was a chemist, and one was a mathematician (for example) but my own knowledge probably doesn't really represent the data because I generally don't want to inquire into such matters.