I don’t normally blog after noon, especially on Fridays. However, this news story was on my Google front page.
Coach, 40, Weds 16-Year-Old Student
It’s a completely repugnant story. As a public service, I’m going to offer some insight on how this sort of thing comes about, using quote from the story.
During Windy’s freshman year, her 38-year-old track coach, Brenton Wuchae, began taking a more active interest in her, offering to give the 14-year-old rides home from practice.
THIS IS BAD. While I may be paranoid, no 38 year old adult will be giving me 14 year old daughter a ride home by herself, unless that adult is someone that I would trust my very life to. And that’s a pretty short list.
The Hagers confronted Wuchae.”He assured me there was nothing like that going on, [and that] they were just friends. His intentions were purely appropriate,” Dennis said.
HE IS LYING.
The principal of the high school wrote to the Hagers, “I have seen nothing but a cooperative attitude from the teacher, and to the best of my knowledge, he has not had any contact with Windy since then.””School officials can’t be responsible for what happens the other hours of the day, and I would think the relationship developed much more outside of school,” said Brian Shaw, an attorney for the school district.
Way to CYA, school district. Way to cover your ass. Now, while the parents did the right thing by contacting the school district, they really should have been a bit more of a squeaky wheel.
The Hagers contacted police; they even tried to get a restraining order.
I would like to know why that restraining order was denied, I really would. Now, up to this point, the parents seem pretty smart, they’ve been trying to contact the authorities and handle this situation before it gets any worse. So…what went wrong?
Meanwhile, the Hagers say Windy withdrew, refusing to speak to them until she asked them to sign a consent form so that she and her coach — a man more than twice her age — could get married.Although anguished, her weary parents gave in.
“Signing those consent forms was the hardest thing I did in my whole life, but we had to move on, it was going to kill us all,” Dennis said.
You have got to be kidding me. As Mrs. Ahab said when she saw this story, “what parents give in and let their child ruin her life because she is giving them the silent treatment”? That does seem to be the question of the hour.
I cannot for the life of me fathom how their answer wasn’t “No. When you’re 18 you can do as you please.”
I’m going to leave this post on top all weekend. I am completely and utterly disgusted by this.
Update: I want to add a thought that occurred to me the other night while I was thinking about this. I understand that the system seems to have completely failed these parents; they tried to play through the proper channels. I don’t understand why after the system failed the parents, that father didn’t have a “man to man” with the coach. And by “man to man” I mean something along the lines of “If you come near my daughter I will kill you and it will take God Himself to find the body”.
I still want to know why that restraining order was denied.
