Ms teacher

A post I read a few days ago inspired me to share this. This was about 15 years ago back in 2005. I was 12 years old and in 7th grade.

At our MS we had to do something called exploratory classes. There were like 8 of them designed to introduce you to different fields. (I.E. Art, music, health, etc.) I think the idea was to help you decide what electives you wanted to tale in HS. Most of us thought the whole thing was stupid and hated the classes. All of us girls hated one class in particular.

The teacher had an unsettling habit of trying to look down the shirts of female students. It was so bad that even though his class was the first in rotation at the beginning of the year we all wore sweatshirts in his classroom. We didn't dare ask for his help because he would lean down uncomfortably close to you and put his hand on your shoulder. Of course if you were unlucky he'd come over to "check on you" and do this anyway especially if you'd forgotten a sweater that day. I was competent in that class and was well endowed at 12/13 so he came over to "check on me" and "compliment my work" a lot.

This teacher was also the coach of one of the athletic teams. And at the beginning of the season he would take all the girls on this team out to eat at a fancy restaurant and tell them to dress up. He would also single out whichever girl he thought was the best at the end of the season and take her out alone. (I still cannot figure out why girls kept joining the team. Probably because with sports in our school you couldn't join in HS without a sign off from the MS coach.)

I never said anything because I was a rebellious arts kid and I didn't think anyone would believe me. I can't say why nobody else said anything. In 2005 we really didn't talk about what to do in those situations. I'm so happy we've progressed to a point where girls can call out behavior like that. I wish I'd said something back then.