Mad

First, go look at this.

I read PostSecret every week; sometimes the secrets are inspirational, oftentimes they're funny, but this one ... this one is INFURIATING.

I saw it last night and it has stayed with me all day today, in the way that toilet paper sticks to your shoe, or a popcorn kernal sticks in that little space between your back molars.

When I became a teacher, I didn't have to take an oath, like doctors do, to make the patient's health my first priority. But I am still entrusted with my students' welfare, and it is not--NOT--in a child's best interests for me to sleep with him. It's not in my best interests either. Shoot, it's not in my WORST interests. In my long list of interests, "sleep with student" would fall between "watch Project X again" and "lose all my teeth."

I cannot FATHOM the justification that the teacher seems to be making: "Technically, he's not my student anymore." That does not change the relationship. That does not negate the number of months he's been sitting in her class, taking notes on her lecture, calling her Miss ___, and asking for her permission to go to the bathroom. She is still Miss ___ to him, but now she's Dirty Miss ___.

WHAT are teachers thinking about when they get into these situations? And this teacher in particular, is she looking for a prize, or something, because she was patient? Is she saying that she's carefully considered the pros and cons of entering into a sexual relationship with a (barely) former student? Is she implying that she has not crossed any boundaries or done anything that might tar the rest of us with her disgusting pedophiliac brush?

I cannot believe, with all the media attention focused on the inappropriate relationships between students and teachers, this person would have the kind of mindset in which waiting until after graduation to sleep with a student is "okay."

IT IS NOT OKAY.