To the Editor:
It’s interesting that in one of the Associated Press articles on teacher sexual misconduct you ran in your Oct. 24, 2007, issue, “Gender Affects Response to Teacher-Student Sex,” the author writes that a 17-year-old girl was “forced into sex by a male teacher,” while a 17-year-old boy was said to have been “seduced by his attractive female teacher.”
I wonder how differently people would view these cases if the descriptions were switched, and the 17-year-old boy was “forced into sex,” while the 17-year-old girl was “seduced by her attractive male teacher.”
People have different responses to the cases because the media portray them quite differently.
James Westrick
Alameda, Calif.
