Limestone County District Attorney Kristi Valls says she can’t bring criminal charges against school employees who have sexual contact with students who have reached the age of consent – which is 16 in Alabama.

Unless the school employee gives the student alcohol or drugs, there is no crime committed.

For years, only professional codes of conduct barred educators from having sexual contact with students.

Now, at least four states have passed laws in recent years making it a crime for school employees – whether they are certified teachers or non-certified employees – to have sexual contact with students under age 18. The states include Texas, Washington, Connecticut and Florida.

Some parents in Elkmont say they would support such a law.

Last week, three high school football players reportedly told school authorities that counselor’s assistant Jeana Boyd had sexual contact with them. The football players made the allegations after five boys were questioned for rolling toilet paper on the Boyds’ property and erecting a sign that stated, “Walk-ins Welcome.” They say the incidents occurred off school property in a vehicle and at the employee’s home. Boyd denied the allegations but resigned Nov. 13 citing personal reasons. The resignation stopped further school system investigation, so the accusations have not been proved or disproved.

But the case has sparked discussion among parents who worry that teachers and employees who resign are not held accountable and that they could possibly repeat the behavior at another school.

“I know there is a possibility she can go into another school system and do it all over again,” said Cheryl, not her real name, who said Boyd showed inappropriate conduct toward her son as far back as February. “It’s not right for her to be given that opportunity.”

The News Courier is not releasing Cheryl’s name because doing so would identify one of the underage boys involved in sexual allegations.

Tina McAnally, whose son was one of the students suspended for rolling toilet paper on the Boyds’ property, believes school employees must be held accountable, even if they are not teachers.

“I think that if it happens with a school member that it should be investigated further because she can get a job somewhere else,” McAnally said. “She needs some kind of mark on her record.”

Accountability

Parents looking for accountability could sue a school employee in civil court and try to prove damage was done to the student.

School employees who are certified by the state could lose their teaching certificates if the state Board of Education found such accusations to be true. That would prevent them from repeating their behavior at another school. But, if the school employee is non-certified, there is nothing the state board of education or the local board of education can do, said the attorney for the Limestone County school system, J.R. Brooks of Lanier, Ford, Shaver and Payne in Huntsville.

“The state superintendent has the authority to revoke the certificate of a person found guilty of immoral conduct,” Brooks said. “There is nothing that I know of that applies to a non-certified employee. Non-certified personnel are not certified by the state board of education. They hardly regulate them in any way. There is nothing they can do.”



Resigning



Parents worry about teachers being able to resign amid allegations of immoral conduct with students.

“If someone resigns in lieu of termination (resigns instead of being fired), then it is reported,” Brooks said. “If someone up and decides to resign and it’s not in lieu

of cancellation and discipline is not instituted, then I don’t know what happens. If there has been no discipline and no investigation, then there is often not any reason to go report. If an employee wants to resign, the employee can resign.”

Report it

Parents should make a written report to the state board if they believe a school employee exhibits immoral conduct.

“It can just be the testimony of the child,” said Jane Allred, a secretary who works for the lawyers at the Alabama Board of Education. “They send out an investigator who talks to the child and to witnesses to determine what occurred.”

After reviewing evidence and holding a hearing, the department can take action against the teacher or take his or her teaching certificate, she said.

Parents can make reports on certified and non-certified personnel, she said.

“It’s always good to report it,” she said, adding that State Superintendent of Education Dr. Joseph Morton “will make sure it gets looked into.”

Parents can contact the state Department of Education Certification Office by going to the state Department of Education Web site at http://www.alsde.edu/html/home.asp, by calling (334) 242-9700 or by writing to: 50 North Ripley Street, P.O. Box 302101, Montgomery, Ala., 36104.



Growing trend?



The number of cases of sexual abuse by teachers — female and male — is still by many estimates less than 10 percent of all sex crimes against minors, though there have been stories about male teachers committing statutory rape with their female students in the news for decades.

Brooks believes parents are simply more likely to report such cases today than in decades past.

“I am skeptical of the proposition that this sort of thing is happening more,” said Brooks, who has been representing schools in North Alabama for 30 years. “I think more attention is drawn to it. I think there has been a lot of national attention and that has caused additional local attention. ”

“Older women involved with underage males is nothing new,” said Louis Schlesinger, a forensic psychologist at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York, in an article by Catherine Donaldson-Evans. “That’s been going on many, many, many years. The general view is that it’s a rite of passage. … The guy is lucky.”

Just as there’s pedophilia involving young children, there’s also a related disorder called hebophilia, which is sexual attraction to adolescents, or postpubescent minors.

“Some adult men and women are attracted to teenagers,” said Schlesinger. “These are teachers with boundary problems. Their boundaries are very fluid.”



Mixed review



Although Cheryl is unhappy with what happened to her son, she is satisfied with how Elkmont High School Principal Mickey Glass handled the situation.

“In February, I didn’t have anything to substantiate my suspicions,” she said. “I told him I didn’t want to make a big deal about it right now. But, he did act on what I had said. I didn’t have anything to stand on other than what I was hearing. As far as his actions, I have no complaints on how he handled it.”

When she learned from another mother last week about the allegations of sexual contact with football players, she called Glass again.

“As soon as I called him he did everything he could do,” she said. “We talked again Sunday night and I gave him the name of another parent who agreed to give me her name. Monday, he started asking questions and by 2:30 p.m., there was an emergency meeting and she had resigned.”

Still, she doesn’t like the overall outcome.

“I’m not satisfied with the outcome – that she resigned and nothing goes on her record. I’m not happy with that. If she goes to another school system and works with young boys again, it’s not on her record and it’s not right.”



Under the microscope





Cheryl said the boys and the parents have had their own difficulties dealing with the situation.

“It was very hard on them,” Cheryl said of the three boys. “It’s torn them apart emotionally. They knew it was wrong, but they couldn’t tell anybody. After that, it was almost like someone being raped – the victim never tells. One of the boys said, ‘I didn’t want my momma hurt.’

“When I questioned my son, it was killing him to tell me anything,” Cheryl said. “And he did not tell me everything. When he wrote his statement, I learned everything that happened. I asked him how come he didn’t tell me. He said, ‘I couldn’t. I didn’t feel comfortable.’

As for her own feelings, she recalls having the feeling of being in the spotlight herself.

“At the ballgame the other night she felt a rush come over her “who knows my son is telling the truth and who thinks he’s lying?”

Both mothers regret how the incident has affected the Boyds’ children.

“Several of us mothers involved have talked and we hate that the Boyds’ children are having to go through this,” Cheryl said. “No child should have to undergo this, but there was no other choice. We did not want to go to the media because we were afraid the boys’ names would come out. But somebody did, and now we have to deal with it.”

Clint Boyd has said the accusations are false and that his wife resigned for personal reasons. He said he believes the accusations were made after he called police about their house being rolled with toilet paper. However, he declined to discuss the matter on the record.

“My thing is these boys knew when they talked to the principal and why would they say a statement like that knowing the severity of what they were putting on paper,” Cheryl said. “The boys are respected teens in the community. Someone told me they saw the boys and they were white as a sheets – stripped of everything — not their normal selves.”



Lessons learned



Above all, Cheryl wants parents to be more aware of what their children are doing.

“Even if you have a good son, things do happen. Parents need to make sure they are in touch and in tune with their children. Maybe they can prevent it,” she said.

She also believes parents can do a better job by working together.

“All the boys this has come from have been friends since they were little,” Cheryl said. “All the moms are good friends, and we’re gonna take care of our kids. We look after each other. ”

Some believe the football players in the Elkmont case should have shouldered more of the blame because they were old enough to know better than to engage in sexual conduct with a school employee.

Others say parents shouldn’t have to instruct their sons and daughters about avoiding sexual contact with school employees, they believe the students should simply be off limits.

Most believe parents and school officials should be more aggressive when they first witness inappropriate relationships developing between school employees and students.