Teacher Accused of Statutory Rape and Other Offenses
 

Cindy Garner Clifton, 41-year-old middle school reading teacher, is accused of having sex with boys and other offenses. I have only seen a couple of articles from reputable sources.

http://m.wmctv.com/ms/p/a3/59/view.m...ies&news2=Main

From the sound of the article, it seems like this situation has happened in the area before, but I didn't hear about it. If that's true, then this is even more worrisome. It also sounded like the minors weren't completely victims in the situation either. It will be interesting to see how this plays out.

Also, the attorney's last name is Ballin. I chuckled.

I'm getting really really tired of reading stories like this. WTF are these people thinking? There was a story in Cinci just recently with a female teacher doing the same thing. I think her sentence was 4 years in jail.

Minors are ALWAYS victims in this type of situation. ALWAYS.

Um, no. They're minors! How can you read this very short article and decide based on one sentence that they weren't victims? I doubt you would say the same thing if the teacher was male and the minors female. Boys can be victims too. This is exactly why it's can be so hard for boys (and men, for that matter) to report abuse. It's completely unfair.

ETA: Looks like DrPhil posted the same point while I was typing.

Add to that if the teacher was male and the minors male.

It is ridiculous that people believe boys and men cannot be the victims of sexual abuse (and domestic violence, that other thread).

Victoriana's post sounded like she felt the ARTICLE was saying the minors weren't completely victims; not that it was her personal opinion.

ETA: IDK who these "residents" are, but they need to go sit down somewhere. 53 counts? Holy moly, woman! For how long had this been going?

Yeah, what is up with that? The minors were victims, as all minors are victims when pursued by older people (who should know better!)

I've seen this line of thinking when people hear about cases with older teens (male and female) but really- a teacher? The teacher should know better, whereas the kids will be kids and fully not comprehend why it's a bad idea to be involved with an adult (because they think they are adults in their minds, but that doesn't make them mature enough to be dealing with a 40 something year old in a "peer" type relationship.)

We had two teachers in the city across the river within the past 2 years. One male, one female. The female worked on these young girls by telling them what they wanted to hear, but she was really trying to bait them into three-ways with her and her husband. That's really sick. I don't believe much came from either case- they can't teach anymore, but it pretty much amounts to a slap on the wrist- and THAT is not fair. If Joe Pervert is texting an underage kid sexual stuff, it will be dealt with much harsher than if it's a teacher, at least that's how it seemed to pan out with these cases. Teachers should, if anything, be held to a higher standard (like jail, not probation!)

I must respectfully disagree with the idea that teachers should be treated differently than any other adult who assaults and abuses a child. ALL of them should be treated as the morally reprehensible criminals they are. There are no shades of grey when looking at this type of abuse. It is always wrong, and the perpetrators need to be held accountable and our children need to be protected. It's the nature of the beast that those accused of these crimes will be in a position of authority over the children they abuse, whether it be youth group leader, church leader, relative or coach. That's how they get access; that's how children can be forced into silence.

That's what I'm saying- it seems in a lot of these cases, the teachers get some bogus probation deal and a "you can't teach anymore" slap, while others charged with similar crimes get jail sentences. At least that is the way it seems to work out around here. Debra LaFarve (sp?) comes to mind as another well-known case. If one person goes to jail for that offense, everyone should. It's like teachers are less accountable, because they are (supposed to be) nice and educated and polite and not dirty and weird like "stereotype" of a pedophile. A pedophile is a pedophile, regardless of what they know, how they look, how they present themselves, etc.

Isn't that crazy? How can you say "the minors hold some responsibility, depending on their age." Minors! And minors who are predominantly middle school students, correct?

If victoriana was only talking about the dumb residents, my bad! My response to victoriana should be applied to the dumb residents and not to victoriana.

The way I read the article was that perhaps some of the boys were at the age of consent. The quote about this happening more often is ridiculous to me though. It happened before, people just weren't caught or it wasn't publicized.

It is hard for me to talk about much, but I have a dear friend who was falsely accused and convicted of this type of crime. She is spending four years in prison and it has ruined her life. She was tried by the media and on bulletin boards before she went to trial.

I bring up that point only because it's important to hold true to "innocent until proven guilty." We tend not to do that, especially in these kinds of cases.

I was referring to the part of the article that said "Clifton is accused of providing alcohol to and contributing to the delinquency of a minor." I could see a situation where the minors asked the woman for alcohol, so she got it for them. In that sort of situation, the minor IS partially responsible because they asked for it. I suppose that is what popped into my mind first.

Dr. Phil, I DEFINITELY agree that anyone who is sexually abused, especially minors, are victims in a situation like that. As a victim of sexual abuse personally, I would never say that these kids aren't victims. What happened to them is horrible. I think it could have been prevented had the parents in the town been paying more attention to their kids. Of course now that it has happened, the parents blame them for it. There is nothing I hate more than blaming the victim in a sexual abuse situation.

Well, unless the article is crappy journalism, it said "minors...depending on their age." You can't preface it with "minors" and then say they were at the age of informed consent. Wouldn't that make them no longer minors accordingly to that state's laws?

Thank you for this. My parents' friends have a daughter who went through something extremely similar.

No, the minors are not partially responsible. Minors (people who are legally considered minors) cannot legally request alcohol from an adult in jurisdictions where people under a certain age cannot legally consume alcohol.

Blaming a minor victim in a sexual abuse case is correlated with blaming a minor for requesting alcohol (or drugs or anything else) from an adult. This is especially the case when talking about male minors as victims. It is not uncommon for people to accuse boys of requesting alcohol, drugs, and sex as though the fact that they are boys is overriden by their supposed "request."

You would probably be less inclined to say this about girls being given alcohol because you would be more inclined to acknowledge alcohol as a facilitating factor for the sexual abuse of girls.

Yes...yes...there is also a Lifetime movie about that.

It is not uncommon for the public to form an opinion which I don't see many people having a problem with for cases like Sandusky at Penn State.

I'm going to play the Devil's advocate here, and say that while I do agree with you, I also think that may be the point she's trying to make, though. They requested it even though it's not legal for them to have it. From a legal standpoint, the kids aren't responsible - she should have known better than to actually listen to the kids, for goodness' sake. She's the adult in that situation. But assuming all these charges are true, she may not have considered giving them the alcohol if they hadn't asked.

Like you said, legally they can't be held even partially responsible for requesting it, because she should have known better than to say "lol, that's fine, what kind do you want?" Morally, it's even worse - but from a non-legal standpoint, the fact that the kids asked for something that they knew was illegal could show that they knew that what they were doing was wrong, but they chose to do it anyway.

I mean, think what you may of the cognitive abilities of minors, but I'm still pretty sure most middle school kids know that alcohol is a no-no.

I see where you're coming from. From your perspective, what could have happened is that the kids didn't ask the teacher to buy them alcohol, but she offered it to them in order to get them intoxicated so she could take advantage of them. That is what could have happened, but we don't know details and we shouldn't assume. I think it's likely that these kids asked the teacher to buy them alcohol. That wouldn't surprise me at all. Kids ask adults to buy alcohol for them all the time. Maybe she did have the ulterior motive of taking advantage of them later on. We don't know.

As for the gender issue, it doesn't matter if it was a girl or a boy illegally asking an adult to buy them alcohol. I'm not saying that it's a "boys will be boys" sort of situation at all. I think that girls can be just as guilty of this. I'm not saying that it's okay for an adult to supply minors with alcohol. Alcohol can be and often is a factor in sexual abuse cases, no matter the gender of the victim.

I 100% agree with you. If these minors did indeed ask the teacher for alcohol and she provided it, I would say that legally, the kids can't be held responsible but morally, they should be. They know that it's wrong for them to have alcohol. The teacher should have known better than to give it to them, but the kids should have known better than to ask.

"The devil doesn't need an advocate."

~ Me ;)

As for the bolded, idiots and wrongdoers are among the reasons why we have laws to protect children.

Dear Accused Teacher, Little Tommy cannot request sex, drugs, and rock 'n roll. He can't.

This is ridiculous. The adult had both the legal and moral obligation. Children are children and the parents need to be the ones concerned with the corporal punishment if there is any.

Again, the alcohol is a facilitating factor for what allegedly came next.

Okay, I do agree with this to an extent. I see what you're saying. But I also agree that whatever happened after that exchange (and during for the most part) is morally and legally the fault of the teacher. Asking for what you shouldn't have is wrong but that's like .00001% of the fault to bare in this case.

*It's terrible how many HP metaphors are going through my mind. I'll spare you all my nerdiness and keep them to myself.*

If this does go to trial, she's going to have one hell of a time getting a "fair" anything. Dee is right--in cases like this, the person is often crucified by the media before it even gets that far. I do believe in innocent 'til proven guilty but 53 counts...doggone. All I can do is SMH and wonder WHAT was she thinking.

It's also important to bear in mind that even when you are looking at a case where the student is of age, but still a student, it is still wrong. Not *as* wrong, but still wrong - the student/teacher relationship is a power thing, and no matter the age, the teacher is still committing a gross violation of their status as an authority figure.

When I was in high school, we had one of these situations come up with a female teacher and one of the guys who was in my class year. I don't know all the legal details, but they both left the school and their families (he left his parents & she left her husband and children). Last I heard, they're still together. To this day I find the whole thing incredibly disturbing.

Ren, were you (and he) a senior that year or was there no chance he was of age? I'm just curious. The answer won't reverse the vomit creeping up my throat because that's so far past creepy.

An old high school friend was arrested a couple years ago for having a relationsip with a student. He was 23 and she was 17, I believe. Knowing him to be a "good guy," knowing there are relationships with wider age ranges, knowing it wasn't about sex and that they did actually have a relationship....I still think it was wrong. I was saddened by how it destroyed his reputation and made him lose his job but I really can't say anything. She was off-limits whether or not she was 17-almost-18. He was her teacher and consequently, their relationship could NEVER be equal until he wasn't anymore. It was an abuse of power whether he intended it to be or not. He should have known better.

Which brings me back to the point we were discussing ^^^up there somewhere. If these children sought out alcohol or whatever from their teacher, that was wrong because they knew they shouldn't have it. I acknowledge that. But everything before, during, and after that falls on the teacher's shoulders. Even if some of them were "of age" there was a power dynamic involved and it was her responsibility to avoid this. The legal system can work out the rest.

There is a difference between morally/ethically wrong and illegal though.

The article is clearly poorly written. A "minor" is different depending on whether you're talking about alcohol, tobacco/voting, or age of consent. It's an inconsistent term that should have been clarified. Someone can be a minor in relation to alcohol but legally of consent and able to get married.

Sorry, it's probably just best to "agree to disagree" but the kids were being KIDS...which is where ADULTS need to be adults.

No matter how people phrase it, it sounds like the girl got raped after the party because she allowed herself to get drunk. A middle school kid curious about alcohol should not have to become a victim of sexual abuse to satisfy that curiosity. In a perfect world, middle school kids wouldn't be dreaming of such things. But in this world- Earth- kids can and do think about experimenting with alcohol. That's where ADULTS come in to point them in the right direction...to use it as a learning opportunity, not to say "Hey the state store is around the corner; I'm driving!"

I don't care if they asked the teacher for freaking heroin, the bottom line is, SHE was the teacher, SHE is an ADULT...and no matter what idea may pop into her head at that moment, SHE is responsible for controlling her actions and responses, PERIOD. And if she can't "handle" that...then don't BE a teacher.

I wonder what it was about that particular teacher that made kids think she'd buy alcohol? I mean, I'm not a teacher- yet- but I don't think being asked to buy beer is a common middle-school phenomenon. Lots of times these "predator-teachers" are the "fun" ones who use an easy sequey into the adult world, and adult things (like smoking, alcohol, sex, porn, etc) to get kids to show an interest in THEM.

Agreed on all points.

We were seniors when the relationship was discovered, but it was brought out that they had apparently been together for quite a while.

Exactly. My dad was my mom's teacher, which freaks out a lot of people - but they didn't date until she was in college. I don't have a problem with that - it's kind of like when someone dates someone who they used to supervise at work. If you no longer work together, it's no big deal. If you're still their boss, then that's completely inappropriate.

Beyond the fact that it is a poorly written article, the teacher is being accused of giving alcohol to minors--contributing to the delinquency of a minor--and statutory rape. Where is the confusion regarding whether or not the alleged victims are minors?

This discussion would have gone a lot different if this was a male teacher and female student; or male teacher and male student.

There probably would not be the following:

1.) Reminder of "innocent until proven guilty" (the title of this thread says "accused of...");

2.) Mention that the teenagers could be partly responsible since they requested alcohol;

3.) Mention of this potentially being one big misunderstanding; or

4.) Mention of people who have been wrongly accused in the past.

The fact that this thread has taken this turn is another gendered double standard. People are much more likely to consider alleged female offenders to be more along the lines of another victim than a perpetrator.

The news sources cannot decide whether the boys range in ages 11-14 or 14-17. They are still minors based on how minor is defined in Tennessee (legal drinking age is 21; age of informed consent is 18).

I still want some clarity on the age range.

http://www.wreg.com/news/wreg-teache...,4222104.story

http://www.allvoices.com/contributed...40-yrs-in-jail

http://www.opposingviews.com/i/socie...d-sex-students

My point was that anyone who asks someone older than them for alcohol knows it's something they're not allowed to have or buy - a "no-no." If they didn't know it was illegal, they would have just tried to buy it on their own instead of asking.

I don't spend much time with middle schoolers now, but when I was in middle school my friends and I knew enough to stay away from alcohol. The students who wanted alcohol got it, but they also knew that it was illegal for them to do so, so they had to be sneaky about it. I had very little sympathy for the people in my 8th grade class who complained of being hungover the day after bragging about how their "cool college friends" would be getting alcohol for them at an "awesome party."

The attitudes towards and the knowledge about alcohol at that age may also have something to do with where I grew up, though, so there you have it.

What is the significance of this in light of what this teacher is being accused of?

Many teenagers don't like the fact that they have restrictions. Some teenagers would ask for all sorts of things if they think adults will give it to them. Some teenagers would ask for shots of tequila if they thought an adult would give it to them; some teenagers would ask to drive the car without a drivers license and with no one with a drivers license in the car if they thought an adult would give that to them; some teenagers would ask for oral sex if they thought an adult would give it to them. The fact of the matter remains that there is a legal drinking age; legal age at which teens can get drivers licenses and drive cars all by themselves; and an age of informed consent.

Period.

The confusion is in the article itself where it said "depending on age". I'm just chalking it up to a poorly written article. I didn't know that 18 was the age of consent in TN when I said that. Most states have a lower age of consent so I was thinking that was some of the confusion.

For some reason, this quote is the highlight of this thread:

"Covington residents say if the allegations are true, the minors hold some responsibility, depending on their age."

It seems as though the Covington residents are saying that the older minors should know better (similar to what crosscaravan is saying about asking for alcohol). The residents' opinions do not mean that these minors are not minors.

Agreed on everything. I'd also like to add another small point. Children may know certain things are wrong, or off limits. If children ask an adult for something that they know they shouldn't have, and that adult gives it to them, in a lot of children's minds they think it's then okay to have whatever was off limits. An adult giving a child something can seem like they're getting permission to have it/do it/say it, so in hindsight they really don't know it's a no-no.

Another point on a middle schooler asking for alcohol and for the record I also agree that whether they did or didn't has NOTHING whatsoever to do with the sex abuse charge and in NO WAY makes them even .00001% at fault for it.

I've taught middle school and high school age students for most of my career. Not once has a student come to me or any teacher I know and asked for alcohol. Do they want it? Yes, they do. Do they find it? Yes, they do, but they don't randomly ask teachers, and I'm assuming that's because they know that the results of that query would not be good.

That would lead me to believe that IF they did ask this teacher, she had already crossed enough lines that they believed she was the type of person that might do it. I don't know if she's guilty, but that would seem to be typical behavior for a sexual predator. Generally, they work like a fisherman - they know what the fish wants, they put it on a hook, wait for it to bite and slowly reel it in before the fish know what's happened.

Personally, I think she knew exactly what the typical 14-17 year old boy would want, she led them to believe she was the "cool, laid-back" teacher who might be willing to provide it, and then she had them where she wanted them like any other sexual predator. In other words - she groomed them. If that turns out to be what happened it doesn't matter whether or not they asked for alcohol, it doesn't matter if they were 11 or 17, and it shouldn't matter that they're boys and she's a woman - she should be locked up like any other skeezy, perverted, middle-aged sex abuser.

EXACTLY. I think it's an odd request. I bet if someone would ask the other middle-school teachers in the school "did these students ever ask you to buy them alcohol?" the answer would be "NO!" Why THAT teacher? To me, it seems the answer is clear- she is a predator and was blurring lines long before this happened.