Female Sex Offenders
Antidote to the Cold
In Minnesota, 32-year-old Julie Feil indulged in a three month affair with a 15-year-old boy from her English class. She stated, quoted by Matt Bean, that she "loved him the best way I knew how." Her situation, which occurred in 1998, seemed almost innocent in contrast to another teacher who can hardly claim poor judgment or even immaturity as an excuse. She could not have believed that what she was doing was justified.
Kimberly Merson, 24, substitute teacher and cheerleading coach at Francis Scott Key High School, went farther in these situations than most. She partied with eight boys between the ages of 15 and 17 (one report says nine boys). Once she had them drunk, she brought them to her house, stripped off her clothes for them and had sex. One of the boys took the nude photos he had of her to the police, so she could hardly deny the charges. In fact, the boy claimed she had initiated this kind of incident more than once. Merson pled guilty to four counts of felony child sex abuse in July 2001 and received eighteen months in jail.
Another teacher who was just 21 and barely out of college committed similar acts. An art teacher, she was charged with bringing seven underage males to a party, where she drank with them and had sex with two of them. Since the charges were dropped, we won't name her (although other news sources have done so).
What angers many people about these cases is not just the attentions of an older woman to boys but the exploitation of their positions of authority, along with their violation of the trust bestowed on them when they accept employment as teachers. They're expected to comport themselves as responsible adults who understand the vulnerabilities of children. Yet even some of the older women fail to see past their own needs. Let's look at a quick list.