This illustrates what NOT to do if you are a public figure.
The oldest man in the boat is my former Dean. I'll call him "Dean", here, to preserve whatever may be left of his reputation.
Once Dean had sat me down and lectured me forwards and back on how it was improper to have young college girls over to my house at all hours of the night. He made this claim after having observed my home through a privacy fence and about 100 yards that separated our properties. He said he was just looking out for me, but that I should not ever be seen w/students off the clock, especially at odd hours, especially at night, etc. It was quite the sermon. (At the time, I was just taken aback that he would be "spying" on me so much, that I was even a person of interest.)
Dean went on from my humble school to become President at another. His school became embroiled in the workstudy/college athlete scandal, but eventually after much gray hair and wrinkling, he emerged from that debacle okay.
Then, in August, this photo of him emerged, was published, and eventually led to his resignation. I wonder what happened to Dean's common sense, dignity, and sense of impropriety? I wonder what happens now to him, sans six-figure income?
That must have been one hell of a fun time to have cost him so very much.
Then again, why did it?
And for that matter, what was so improper about me having young ladies to my house back in the day? Maybe we were grant writing.
We are not clergy, not really of any office that should demand some kind of holier-than-thou lifestyle, right? Was pouring a drink for some young lass, off the clock, on the lake, such a crime? I would not have fired him for such an action, even if the whole crew of said boat were underage (which, in all likelihood, they were). So he wasn't a model of clean living at that moment. Maybe he wasn't living by his own advice...but so what?!
In this age, where cameras are ubiquitous, how can anyone expect to always be captured in a Norman Rockwellian moment? Who among us may occasionally sigh, "Whew, glad that wasn't on camera!"
I'm not proud of Dean getting caught with his shirt off there. I'm sure worse pictures of me are floating around (photoshopped, of course!)...and I know there are many moments of my life I'm not proud of, overall.
But really, morality police, get over it!
1 comment:
Maybe it is not that teachers are suppose to be some sort of perfect people or that they should have morals above everyone else. And it is not that teachers should have to answer to anyone or live by stricter rules. I think the thing is that a teacher should not be running around dating or partying with their students. Teachers, even at the college level, have an influence over students that is difficult to understand and dissect. A teacher who continually put a student down, for example, can have a lasting effect over the student, even the 25 year old. If a teacher is out drinking or having sex with someone 21, even if the teacher is much older (or not) and the 21 year old is not and never has been a student of theirs then I agree, it is no ones business. But, if the teacher cares less about the student and wants to do whatever he/she can get away with then that is why they are asked to turn in their resignations. Because they do not have the common sense enough to be teaching.
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