Lunch Break: Teacher leaves family for former student
by LauraLoo
An angry California mother is alleging abuse now that her 18-year-old daughter is living with her former high school teacher, who left his wife and children to move into an apartment with the young woman.
James Hooker, 41, quit his job after going public with his love for Jordan Powers, 18, who stopped attending classes at her Modesto high school and left home to be with her former business teacher.
The issue is when the relationship between Hooker and Powers truly began, and whether Hooker broke any laws.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=igolnJ2aIU0[/youtube]
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[HT: WLS890AM Chicago]
Mar.05, 2012 12:00 pm |
Video of the day |
Jill Stanek is a nurse turned speaker, columnist and blogger, a national figure in the effort to protect both preborn and postborn innocent human life.
Wow…I don’t have any living children yet, but homeschooling is sounding better and better every day.
I don’t buy that he magically waited until her 18th birthday, either.
WTF is in the water in Modesto that seems to breed sociopaths? Seriously! My ex went to high school in Modesto, and that place is jacked up, lemme tell ya. I actually used to jog right past those apartments.
Well, that’s disgusting. I agree Kate, I would bet money that he didn’t wait to prey on her until she was eighteen.
Xalisae: My ex went to high school in Modesto, and that place is jacked up, lemme tell ya.
:P :) :)
Do couples exchange wedding vows anymore? Or is it all contractual?
Seems like kind of a non story. She is 18, so an adult. He is a creep for leaving his family, but that is not a crime. When I was in high school, my homeroom teacher married a student as soon as she graduated the previous year.
A well known judge here in town, now deceased, married a 17 year old student when he was her high school English teacher back in the 70’s. Lots of my great grandparents were older man teen woman or had a big age difference. After his first wife died, my great grandfather, 50 married my great grandmother 20. They went on to have seven kids. The next to youngest was my grandmother. By all accounts, he was a good guy.
Bottom line, the age difference is a big zero importance in my book.
Leaving his family makes him scum.
Do couples exchange wedding vows anymore? Or is it all contractual?
Are you kidding?
People take vows lightly, but not contracts.
If it were contractual, as it used to be, you would see people taking it much more seriously. Cheaters hate durable contracts. Mortgage meltdown, anyone?
Tammy Powers I hope you succeed in having this guy prosecuted. What a jerk!!
The poor mother must be pulling her out.
Just another example of a world without boundariesm morals or conscience!!
She stopped attending classes? He quit teaching? Aside from what a perv he looks like, it’s also easy to conclude that neither of them puts much value on education and learning. It’s probably a good thing he’s no longer teaching.
Sheesh. A high school student needs his or her 41 year old faculty members to be mentors, not boyfriends. “Hey baby, I went to college and earned all these credentials, but if you just quit and get your GED, we can get busy right now!”
I feel really badly for his children and his wife. Sad day when the common boundaries of decency are crossed. When evil is portrayed as good, and good as evil, it’s a spiritual battle – and we had better wake up.
As a mom – I also feel for that girl’s mom.
Such a sad time we live in, and that also means that there is much opportunity to talk about right-living, morality and helping people be the best version of themselves that God envisioned for them. Much prayer and work to do…
hippie-
This isn’t 1795 anymore. These days women are valued for more than just breeding stock, so the whole grooming them/setting up a marriage as soon as it’s legal (and possibly earlier if only it were legal) thing comes off these days as rather creepy.
I hope this girl’s mother gets justice.
The age difference is fairly irrelevant to me, also. She’s eighteen, she’s an adult, so even her decisions are dumb and his are morally reprehensible, that’s their mess to clean up. However, I do wonder if anything was going on while he was actively teaching her.
A teacher holds a fairly extreme degree of power over their students. Good or bad grades can determine if and where someone goes to college, as well as what sort of job they may be able to get later on. Depending on the weight of a particular class to a particular job, a bad mark can ruin your life. Which is why it is wrong for a teacher to have a relationship with a student whether that student is “legal” or not. No one should have to wonder whether they can say no to someone without fear of what that person will do to them. And a teacher may have the power to do an awful lot. It makes clear, informed, uncoerced consent much more complicated than it ever ought to be.
So, yeah, I think this girl’s mother absolutely ought to be concerned.
As a father I would like to know where this girl’s father is, and why it is that her mother is the one pursuing the matter. The absence of her father may well explain this particular relationship with its age difference.
That this guy obviously fears no retribution from daddy says quite a bit.
what makes me sick is when ( SOME MEN) think ” its so hot” or ” man i wish i had a teacher like that!” when women like Pamela Smart and MK Laterurno take advantage of underage boys. A PEDOPHILE IS A SICKO no matter what their gender. i always want to ask those same guys how they would feel about an older man ( like this case ) would feel if he was with their young daughter. sick sick sick!
there were just 2 cases here about 8 months ago where 2 female teachers did this same thing. those women need mental health help in my opinion. what would an older woman have in common with a little boy? ick it makes my skin crawl.
Mine too, heather! And I’ve thought about those very cases, where older women are attracted to..what amounts to.. a little boy. You’re right, a pedophile is SICK…
no matter what their gender!
thanks Pamela. weve got to stop giving these women who do the same thing a free pass to do it to boys. its inappropriate but especially so in a teaching setting! I could give a rats behind how good they look. they are sex offenders. nothing more….nothing less.
The women are every bit as destructive as the men. After a sexually sophisticated woman in her late 20’s or 30’s gets done initiating a teen boy, she has utterly destroyed his ability to date girls his own age. His body remembers sophisticated sex and he can’t go back. No girl his age will satisfy him as did his teacher. He will make girls feel inadequate for either not putting out, or not measuring up if they do. He will become frustrated and perceive himself inadequate at intimacy.
It’s a mess, and these women precipitate it. It isn’t hot. It’s tragic.
Where is her father?
See, this is the problem with young girls growing up without strong father figures they can respect.
Hollywood’s creepiest couple is the character actor Doug Hutchison (in his mid-50s) and his now 17-was 16-year-old wife. They apparently had parental permission.
dr nadal..gret comment. hey hans that was creepy. i also found the ashton and demi romance a bit creepy. i know they were both of age but of all the men she could date? ashton? hes more age appropriate for her 21 year old. i guess they would joke about it all the time. btw i found out bruce willis isnt a liberal. demi is. oops post should say (great comment) to dr nadal. say dr nadal do you think women like demi and madonna ( at 53 was going with a 21 and a 22 year old) do this to fill a strange void? id like your input cuz im curious.
Cranky Catholic: Do couples exchange wedding vows anymore? Or is it all contractual?
It’s worked out years in advance by the parents of the prospective bride and groom, ain’t it?
Heather: do you think women like demi and madonna ( at 53 was going with a 21 and a 22 year old) do this to fill a strange void?
Not sure about strange, but yeah, Heather, there’s some voids getting filled in there somewhere. ;)
hippie-This isn’t 1795 anymore. These days women are valued for more than just breeding stock, so the whole grooming them/setting up a marriage as soon as it’s legal (and possibly earlier if only it were legal) thing comes off these days as rather creepy.
Translation:
Young women are now subjected to relentless pressure not to marry and have families until the age that social engineers have decided is in the best interest of society. It is pretty expensive to indoctrinate them and provide abortions. But what is the alternative? A crack in the narrative that all women want careers now and families later. Of course women aren’t monolithic so plenty don’t fit the narrative, but social engineers toil on until every less-evolved female fits into their socially engineered view of what we all must conform to.
The problem is that we demand everyone get in line, not deviate from the script, no exceptions. It is creepy. An 18 year old who wants to marry a 40 year old is not some contemptible creature. She isn’t an idiot or a loser.
Diversity is great until someone does something different.
Anyway, in this particular case, the guy is a bad actor because he left his family. But otherwise a 40 year old marrying an 18 year old is fine. They are adults and can make their own decisions. Why does anyone care?.
hippie-
Just because women tend to postpone childbearing these days doesn’t automatically mean they must abort their children. It’s not wrong to want to do something in lieu of parenting or in addition to parenting. Also, if women want to opt to raise a family earlier, fine. But I object to the idea of “trophy wives”, which is what this sort of thing tends to be. I also WHOLEHEARTEDLY am opposed to the idea of a man in a position of authority grooming a CHILD to be an object solely for his desires. Did you miss the bit about inappropriate pictures and communications when she was still a minor? That is predatory behavior, and just because you know some people who did something that was just as wrong then doesn’t make this any better now.