It is a problem that has afflicted numerous schools around the country: threats of violence sent from anonymous email accounts, messenger apps, and transient phone numbers. In the wake of multiple serious school attacks, administrators cannot afford to take such threats lightly, notwithstanding the fact that the majority of the threats are little more than…
For Some Servicemen In the US Military, Misogyny Outranks Discipline and Honor Honor This is the bedrock of our character. It is the quality that empowers Marines to exemplify the ultimate in ethical and moral behavior: to never lie, cheat, or steal; to abide by an uncompromising code of integrity; to respect human dignity; and…
With the American presidential race in full swing, public opinion polls are once again garnering a huge amount of attention, notwithstanding the fact that they may be fundamentally flawed and actively injurious to our democracy. In fact, the state of polling has deteriorated so much that the polling titan Gallup recently announced that it will…
A short time ago, I wrote a blog post about the need to reframe the discussion over the involunatary capture and distribution of intimate images (colloquially described as “revenge porn”) so as to better capture its true nature: “electronic sexual assault.” One of the concerns that I expressed in that post is that the terminology…
Given the growing importance of technology in our world, it shouldn’t come as a surprise when the cyber- prefix invades another academic discipline. And yet, as I researched this blog post this morning, I was a little startled to realize just how long psychologists have been working the field of cyberpsychology. For the uninitiated, cyberpsychology…
State College, PA has had its share of unpleasant headlines recently (see, e.g. “Sandusky, Jerry“). Now come reports that Wesley Amy, a State College Area High School computer science teacher, has been convicted by a jury of offering students good grades in exchange for nude photos. The 28-year-old educator began teaching computer science at the…
In the summer of 2014, an undercover police detective in New Zealand began trading images of child pornography with a man in Anchorage, Alaska. The detective forwarded information about the exchange to Alaska law enforcement officials, who used the data to obtain a search warrant for the home of Daniel Alan Brown, a teaching assistant…
A confluence of some of the most disturbing trends in American society led to the lockdown Wednesday of Highland High School in Pocatello, Idaho. In the wee hours of the morning on October 7, an unnamed 15-year-old male had a Facebook Messenger exchange with another person, age and gender unknown. A screenshot of a portion…
In August, I wrote about the case of Stephanie McCrea, a drama teacher at Evergreen High School in Vancouver, WA. She used a fake Facebook page to communicate with and set up sexual trysts with a 15-year-old student. Among other things, she used the Facebook page to coach her student on how to answer questions…
A couple of days ago, the Times of London published an op-ed by an anonymous female former teacher entitled “I Had an Affair with My 17-year-old Student.” The article, unfortunately, is behind the paper’s paywall, so it will only be accessible to those readers with a Times subscription or those who are willing to sign…
