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Assistant Editorial Editor:
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Tuesday, June 4,2002
An act of misjudgment
On a warm day in June 1999, proba
bly about 3 p.m., a stampede of
boys and girls charged out of Mrs.
Moore’s seventh grade class at
Woodrow Wilson Middle School in Clifton,
N.J. Some went to camp. Others lounged
around their houses, trying to avoid their
summer chores. They went to the mall, the ar
cade, the pool, their oth
er parent’s house — stuff
kids do in their free time.
But no matter where
they went or how they
spent their summer, they
all bid a happy farewell
to Mrs. Moore: “No more
homework, no more
books, no more teachers’
dirty looks,” or some
thing like that.
One little boy, howev
er, wasn’t so lucky. Or
perhaps he was the luck
iest one of all, depending
on your outlook. He saw
a sharp decline in the homework and the
books, but not the third item. That summer,
and well into the next fall, he got enough
dirty looks to last a lifetime.
Pamela Diehl-Moore, age 43, had a six
month love affair with one of her 13-year-old
students. She was arrested in February 2001
and subsequently lost her teaching license.
Moore pleaded guilty to sexual assault and
expected to receive a three-year sentence. In
stead, she got a slap on the wrist.
New Jersey Superior Court Judge Bruce
Gaeta gave her only five years probation. “I
really don’t see the harm that was done,” he
said, “and certainly society doesn’t need to
be worried. It’s just something between two
people that clicked beyond the teacher-stu
dent relationship.”
This was an act of incredible bias — not
to mention stupidity — on the part of the
Rorick
Columnist
Steve Baggs Emerald
judge. Had a 43-year-old man spent his
summer screwing a 13-year-old girl, he’d
be swinging from a tree branch by now, or
at the very least fending off his cellmate in
the shower. Likewise if the 43-year-old and
the 13-year-old had been the same gender.
But, hey, boys will be boys, and what 13
year-old boy doesn’t dream of a steamy en
counter with an older woman he knows?
Lord knows I used to. I was a bona fide per
vert in the seventh grade and so were most
of my friends and accomplices.
Here’s where Judge Gaeta misjudged. Thir
teen-year-olds have about as much logic and
reason as spider monkeys, but with twice the
sex drive. Most couldn’t make a sensible de
cision if the instructions were tattooed on
their forearms. That’s why they need older,
wiser, more experienced people to guide
them through those tumultuous years. Peo
ple like seventh-grade teachers.
Teachers are more than simply authority
figures and learning aides. A teacher is a sur
rogate parent, a mentor and a therapist. There
is a sacred bond between a student and a
teacher, a bond that should never be violated.
The bottom line is that society is respon- *
sible for protecting its youth until they are
able to make semi-sound decisions on their
own. And right now, with people like Judge
Gaeta in positions of power and people like
Pamela Diehl-Moore in the classroom, we
are seriously slacking in that responsibili
ty. Contrary to what Gaeta says, society
does need to worry.
E-mail columnist Aaron Rorick at
aaronrorick@dailyemerald.com. His opinions
do not necessarily reflect those of the Emerald.
Letters to the editor
Thank you, George Beres
I read the commentary by George Beres,
“Middle East discussion in need of solid Uni
versity curriculum,” (ODE, May 22). I’ve also
read the responses, in which Beres was chas
tised for overlooking some of the details of how
programs are funded at the University. Howev
er, I haven’t read any letters that really shared
Beres’ dismay at the fact that the University of
fers so few options for students seeking a bal
anced curriculum, covering such a critical part
of the world as the Middle East.
Although there may be more “philanthropists”
willing (and able) to spend private money for Ju
daic Studies and other specialty programs at this
public university, the fact remains that Universi
ty students are not being offered a strong nonbi
ased option to focus their studies on events in the
Middle East — especially as those studies might
relate to Israel and Palestine.
So thank you, George Beres, for pointing out
the need for a viable (well funded) and bal
anced Middle Eastern Studies program. And
thanks also for your comments about the con
spicuous lack of protest regarding United
States/Israel policy (“Campus protesters take a
break,” ODE, April 16).
I’ll be watching for more of Beres’ letters in the
future.
Paul Griffes
junior
history
‘Jeff Olivers’ of the world
need a reality check
In response to the “Judging people by the color
of their skin” by Jeff Oliver (ODE, May 29), I am
Letters to the Editor and
Guest Commentaries Policy
Letters to the editor and guest commentaries are
encouraged. Letters are limited to 250 words and
guest commentaries to 550 words. Please include
contact information, The Emerald reserves the right
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also from the Midwest, but from the housing
projects. Chances are as high that the Jeff Olivers
will go out into the world and not interface with
people of color as I will be stopped for driving
black over and over again. Of course, mine is al
ready a reality.
Will preferential admission of African Ameri
cans to the University of Michigan change that? I
hope so, because whatever we got now is not
working.
The emphasis here is access to opportunities,
and in the African American community it is eas
ier to go to prison than it is to go to college. That
stinks. Trying to correct the past is a bitter pill to
swallow in a society based on greed and amne
sia. Regardless of the token clubs on campus, it
is only in lieu of a student body and staff in parity
with the United States, since we are so bleeping
united nowadays.
Ask my 73-year-old mother about diversity.
She did not finish high school in Mississippi be
cause the post-era white slaveowners figured that
black people did not belong in schools, but in the
fields working off bottomless sharecropping
debts — so that the Jeffs of the world could one
day grow up on a cul-de-sac with absolutely no
sense of how they got there.
Right on to the University of Michigan.
Jone Roparte
Eugene
Protest’ nothing more
than a drunken throng
I live on the comer of 17th Avenue
and Patterson Street, where the
melee on Friday night occurred. I
saw it in its entirety, from the time
the first unmarked police car arrived
to ask the crowd on the sidewalk to
disperse until the cleaning crew came
a few hours later. What I witnessed in
between repulsed me. I have heard
analogies to some of the other protests
that have occurred in Eugene over the
past few years. From the footage I
have seen of timber sale protests and
the articles I have read about the tree
sit downtown exactly five years ago, I
can say that what occurred on Friday
night did not resemble them — at all.
This was not a case of peaceful
protest being violently broken up by
overzealous cops. This was merely a
drunken throng without a cause out
side of blind rebellion and showing
little regard for safety and dignity
bringing onto itself the consequences
of its own aggression. In case you
have heard otherwise, it was the stu
dents who initiated the conflict. The
first cop at the scene was simply call
ing through a loudspeaker for the
crowd to disperse when a bottle was
flung towards his car, smashing
against a van directly in front of it,
sending the first of what was to be
many shards of glass cascading to
ward the street. Bottles were hurled
Guest Commentary
D.J.
Fuller
continuously afterwards, too many of
them landing dangerously near peo
ple at the front of the crowd. When
backup arrived and the cops moved to
clear the street, some of the malcon
tents threw bottles directly at them.
That’s not protest — that’s assault.
And what was the cause at hand?
Was some injustice being exposed,
some oppression decried? Was there
something to have been said beyond,
“Fuck you, pigs,” or was this merely
an excuse to give vent to baser in
stincts? Who were the real pigs on Fri
day night? Don’t get me wrong; I be
lieve in protest. I know that cops
abuse their authority and the people.
My mother works as a counselor at a
county jail and sees it all the time. I
know that the criminal justice system
is corrupt and I believe our govern
ment’s priorities are skewed, but what
happened on Friday night doesn’t
lend me any more faith in the people
at large. And that’s a travesty that can’t
be pinned on an authority, but for
which we are all responsible.
D.J. Fuller is a junior political science major.