S.C. Teachers Accused of Sex With Boys

[Omaha Steve]

Source: AP

S.C. Teachers Accused of Sex With Boys
Email this Story

Mar 28, 2:05 PM (ET)

By KATRINA A. GOGGINS

CLINTON, S.C. (AP) - The arrest of two women teachers on charges of having sex with their male students has brought cries of lingering racism in one of South Carolina's most conservative counties and evoked some of the South's oldest and deepest-seated racial taboos.

Both women are white. The boys - six in all - are black.

Some of the blacks who make up more than a quarter of Laurens County's 70,000 residents are upset over the handling of the two cases, particularly the release of the teachers on bail.


This booking photo provided by the Clinton police department shows Allenna Williams Ward, a 23-year-old female middle school teacher in Clinton, S.C who was was fired Feb. 28, 2007, after she was charged with having sex with at least five boys. (AP Photo/Clinton Police Department)

They say the cases reflect the way crimes by whites against blacks in the segregated South were treated less seriously than other offenses, and blacks who leveled accusations against whites were less likely to be believed.

Read more: http://apnews.excite.com/article/20070328/D8O5AT583.html

---

I posted this in LBN because of the racial portion of the story.

[rsr1771]

1. fail to see...

the racial component. Almost everyone is entitled to bail. What's the problem?

[Poll_Blind]

2. A sexual predator is a sexual predator. Doesn't matter what...

...they look like, their gender, their age, their religion, their sexual orientation or victim of choice.

  If it was a black man I guarantee you they would not be out on bail.

PB

[Name removed]

3. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Poll_Blind]

5. I would not be surprised if such a circumstance caused such an action there. n/t

PB

[brentspeak]

8. When's the last time you were in Alabama to know this?

[Name removed]

11. Deleted sub-thread

Sub-thread removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[cornflake_31]

12. Really?

Having grown up both in the north and the south, I would have to say that the old "The south is racist...blah" is a load of horse shit. Now living in north PA I have run across more racists and small minded asshats than I ever did living in FL, GA or LA. The old south is long dead people.

[bluerum]

13. Well we have had very different experiences. eom

[Name removed]

14. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[brentspeak]

15. That's funny, I've spent time in the south, and that hasn't been my experience at all

[hiaasenrocks]

16. Race and gender matter plenty over on the GD board.

I wish I had been keeping count of how many times "white male" was used in discussions on that board to generalize all kinds of crimes and the people who committed them.

[wakeme2008]

4. This is just IMHO but I do not see a race issue but a sex issue...

Wendie Schweikert, a 37-year-old married woman who had been teaching elementary school in Laurens for more than a decade, was arrested last year after the mother of an 11-year-old boy accused her of having sex with the boy at school at least twice.

Again IMHO if a 37 yo Male had sex with a 11 yo female, he would still be in jail..... Just IMHO...

[Poll_Blind]

6. About bail, did some quick Googling....

  And turned up a Virginia statue (nearby, likely similar laws), 19.2, which seemed to indicate that certain crimes (including sex offenses) were reason enough to deny bail. FWIW.

(the question, and it was internal to myself, is "Is bail able to be withheld for sexual crimes?")

  In this case, because we're talking about 5 students assaulted, I'd say if a similar statute exists in S.C. (likely) that this would be a case where a judge would reasonably consider denying bail.

  Of course, from the old Katrina coverage, white people 'find' supplies, black people 'loot' them.

  Messed up.

PB

[Rage for Order]

10. Regarding the Katrina coverage you mentioned...

I saw an explanation on an episode of Bill Maher last season, I forgot who it was - some journalist-type - that the reason for the discrepency in the captions was that the reporter saw the black people take (I won't say "loot" because taking food necessary for survival in a disaster zone isn't looting, in my opinion) the food firsthand, but only saw the white people with the food in tow. They didn't know where the supplies came from, so they weren't able to call it "looting". FWIW.

[olddad56]

7. I guess I went to the wrong school at the wrong time.

[junkiebrewster]

17. HA!!!

I was thinking the same thing.

[truthisfreedom]

9. Picture of the other teacher here.

Wendie Schweikert, a 37-year-old married woman who had been teaching elementary school in Laurens for more than a decade, was arrested last year after the mother of an 11-year-old boy accused her of having sex with the boy at school at least twice. Authorities said they found evidence bearing his DNA in her classroom. She is also accused of having sex with him in her car near a miniature golf course and arcade in Greenville, about 40 miles away.