Jeff writes:

Subject: Veracity

Dear Doctor Dorothy,

I stumbled across your article while on a related search. I'm afraid that I find that I must question you one one or two vagaries or inaccuracies, the first of which is minor, but quite clear and fundamental.

As a matter of fact, I found myself a bit startled at even your initial commentary. Especially this comment: "Using the quantifying term, 'Dozens,' implies, the total count is low..."

When I looked back at the preceding statement, "The opening statement of this report began a litany of misinformation-'Dozens of Arizona teachers are accused of having inappropriate or illegal relationships with students each year..."

...I see nothing misleading about it. I don't know about your math skills, but by your own count, "104 cases over four years", by my math, works out to 26 a year, and it literally requires "twenty-four" to cross the threshold to the plurality of "dozens" per year. So the statement is entirely accurate.

Then you go on to add: "Not to mention that many teacher sexual child abuse incidents go unreported every year."

Well, of course. That would be why the original term was "accused of". They said what they meant. As well, I'm sure that as a counselor, you recognize that some of those accusations may well prove to be false, which would also skew the statistics. Or do you claim no teens are manipulative enough to see where false accusation of such a heinous act might somehow be to their advantage?

But my main quibble with the content of your article had to do with your presumed viewpoint. I do admit that your statements were remarkably gender free, but the slightest references, such as "she was allegedly 'dating' one of her teachers", and a lone example to a gym teacher "copping s feel" leaves me leaning towards the inevitable conclusion that you are implying that all "would-be sex offenders" are male.

Of course, perhaps it's simply part of my own prejudice that I can't see a female gym teacher either casually "copping a feel" from or "groping" one of her male students, or that being a "classic" part of their methodology.

However, the point remains. I will ask if your statement, "If one knows the behaviors and the statements, it is relatively easy to identify a would-be sex offender. These behaviors are classic and consistent with sex offenders." applies to the so absolutely to behaviors of female "would-be teacher sex offenders" as well.

Or are you simply focusing on the male side of the equation? After all, such a case might almost tend to make some of your comments appear to be...misleading, let alone (ahem) misinformation or distortion of sex offender modus operandi.

Thank you. Otherwise, I found this an interesting and informative read.

Dorothy M. Neddermeyer writes:

Subject: Veracity

Dear Reader: Thank you for taking the time to write a thorough comment on my article regarding teacher sexual abuse of students.

I appreciate your willingness to become involved in looking at the truth of the matter. Math has, sadly, become a subjective term rather than a finite term. People frequently state something as a 'couple' of times when in fact it might be 5 or more times. Or people might say a dozen when in fact it is 15 - 20. Further questioning reveals this discrepancy. Therein lies my rational for taking the reporter to task for saying dozens when the documented statistic reported are 104, depending where the statistic was gleened. It is in fact then misleading. Not to mention since, psychologically, the majority of people do not want to face this issue, they automatically minimize the number or deny it altogether, because dozen(s) seems like a smaller number than 104 in 4 years. Trust me the majority of people do not do the math.

Regarding your main quibble "she was allegedly 'dating' one of her teachers", and a lone example to a gym teacher "copping s feel" leaves me leaning towards the inevitable conclusion that you are implying that all "would-be sex offenders" are male.

The quote, "she was allegedly 'dating' one of her teachers," was in direct relationship to a referenced case. Furthermore, I referenced a gym teacher 'copping a feel,' because I have had several clients, who experienced such abuse, to only have it dismissed as nothing serious. Both lesbian, male and female gym teachers with boys have 'copped a feel.' However, rather than referencing both gender sex offenders of girls and boys, I left it to the discretion of the reader whether I was referencing only males or both male and female. I was concerned about making the 'letter' too long and thus, it would not be read.

However, all statistics in the past 30 years substantiates more males are sex offenders than female.

BTW, within 30 minutes of receiving the 'email letter' sent to the TV station, who aired the report I received an email from the female News director, who stated she agreed with me 100%. And I am still scratching my head as to why she would allow such a report to be broadcast when she knew it was riddled with misinformation. Therein lies another of my gripes with the media when these cases are reported.

I look forward to further discussion on this critical issue to protect children.