A Touchy Subject for Teachers

It’s natural for a teacher to hug a crying second-grader, to lift a distressed kindergarten student onto a lap. But a Santa Ana case unfortunately has prompted some teachers to consider tempering those spontaneous demonstrations of sympathy.

A Santa Ana teacher, Jerome Thompson Wilhoit, has pleaded not guilty to five counts of child molestation stemming from alleged improper touching of three students. The children, aged 7 to 9, are students in Wilhoit’s combined second- and third-grade class at Wallace R. Davis Elementary School.

Wilhoit is in his first year of teaching. His colleagues, parents and schoolchildren have supported him, with the father of one alleged victim saying the teacher did not touch his daughter improperly.

Orange County teachers with decades of experience say they are more cautious in touching students for fear the physical contact may be misinterpreted.

One teacher said she used to bearhug students frequently. Now she substitutes pats on the back or handshakes.

Those lesser displays of concern or affection do not add up to major deprivation for children. It may not be productive to yearn for the “good old days” before allegations of child molestation became so widespread. What teachers, parents and administrators must strive for is the ability to distinguish between truly inappropriate behavior and that which gives no cause for concern.

More than a decade ago, when the McMartin preschool trial and a spate of other molestation cases rocked Southern California, a judge handling juvenile cases decided no longer to interview children behind closed doors without adults present. It was a common-sense precaution, but what protected the judge from potential accusations deprived some youngsters of private counseling by the judge.

Most school districts in Orange County have only general policies barring physical intimacy or sexual harassment between staff and students.

For the most part it’s up to teachers to use their common sense in deciding when to hug and how to do it. A lawyer for the California Teachers Assn. says she knows that advice never to touch a child is unrealistic.

In Orange County around the time of the McMartin case, a Fullerton elementary school principal who was charged with molestation had the charges dismissed upon explaining he was merely changing the soiled undergarments of a 5-year-old girl.

The situation no doubt could have been dealt with in a better way, but the school board went so far as to demote the principal to teacher. That kind of precedent helps reinforce teachers’ fears of wrongful allegations when they try to help a child in the absence of a parent or guardian. Somehow, we have to strike a balance where common sense rules.