Stugein Posted May 28, 2010 Share Posted May 28, 2010 FAIRFAX, Va. - A Fairfax County jury has acquitted a popular gym teacher who had been charged with molesting a 12-year-old girl at his elementary school. The jury needed less than an hour to deliberate Thursday before acquitting 43-year-old Sean Lanigan on all charges. Lanigan had been suspended without pay from Centre Ridge Elementary School in Centreville following the accusations. The 12-year-old girl testified that Lanigan carried her into an equipment room and placed his hand on her breast and buttocks. On cross-examination, though, the girl admitted that she had a grudge against Lanigan because he had threatened to discipline her for bullying. School officials could not say whether Lanigan would return to his old job at Centre Ridge. Source: WTOP News So this man has been suspended without pay for 4 months, has had to deal with the embarrassment, scrutiny, vicious rumors and personal attacks that come with being accused of something so heinous, has incurred probably thousands of dollars in legal fees, and had to watch his family deal with the same...all because some pre-teen twit wanted to get back at him for threatening to report her for bullying? I can't recall the last time something has irritated me so much..I really hope this girl gets a sack full of karma dumped right on her head. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Major Harris Posted May 28, 2010 Share Posted May 28, 2010 he may be acquitted, but he'll be stigmatized forever, on top of all the stuff listed in the op. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Prosperity Posted May 28, 2010 Share Posted May 28, 2010 at least the student has been outed as a sociopath Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Heisenberg Posted May 28, 2010 Share Posted May 28, 2010 The biggest reason I'd never consider being an elementary school or middle school teacher. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skinfan133 Posted May 28, 2010 Share Posted May 28, 2010 wow... just wow. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Johnny Punani Posted May 28, 2010 Share Posted May 28, 2010 I hope that school system and the kid's parents like big fat civil lawsuits cause they are about to get a whopper of one. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
G.A.C.O.L.B. Posted May 28, 2010 Share Posted May 28, 2010 Lol, that was my elementary school. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Destino Posted May 28, 2010 Share Posted May 28, 2010 Sadly being charged shows up on background checks and your friends and neighbors can usually find it too. These days that's enough to screw you. And here's the kicker, you think born with the net in there hands kids won't find it. If he ever teaches again a pissed kid can destroy him at will. If he gets charged again no one will believe him. His career is done. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Die Hard Posted May 28, 2010 Share Posted May 28, 2010 Oh, come on fellas. We established that 12-year old boys are incapable of understanding what "rape" means and therefore are incapable of understanding the implications of threatening another female with rape. So why the double standard now? How could it possibly be that a 12-year old girl could understand what "sexual molestation" means.... or the consequences of falsely accusing another person of such actions. Hopefully, cooler heads prevail here Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Brave Little Toaster Oven Posted May 28, 2010 Share Posted May 28, 2010 They should give the girl and her parents the death penalty. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thebluefood Posted May 28, 2010 Share Posted May 28, 2010 Way to ruin a man's career. You should know better than that, even at that age. Brat. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hubbs Posted May 28, 2010 Share Posted May 28, 2010 Oh, come on fellas.We established that 12-year old boys are incapable of understanding what "rape" means and therefore are incapable of understanding the implications of threatening another female with rape. So why the double standard now? How could it possibly be that a 12-year old girl could understand what "sexual molestation" means.... or the consequences of falsely accusing another person of such actions. Hopefully, cooler heads prevail here I doubt she really understands what she's done to the guy's life. She just knows it's "bad." But most of what was said in this thread is about how this will affect that teacher for decades, and most of it is, unfortunately, true. Accusation is enough to turn you into a pariah nowadays. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dreamingwolf Posted May 28, 2010 Share Posted May 28, 2010 In cases like this it should be expunged from his record totally. Also think how terribly screwed this girl is now for the rest of her life, if she ever accuses anyone of rape this case will be brought up(if they can figure out she was involved, she maybe protected) and her crediability will be shot even if she is telling the truth. Perhaps this is why the catholics wanted to keep their scandals out of the courts and in their own house, cause the mere accusation does as much damage as if it actually happend and theres a conviction. Im not saying the church did enough in their situations, just saying why they may have chosen to keep it out of the courts. This situation is nothing but sad, and I dont think its that uncommon. In my highschool back in the day, a girl offered sex to a teacher for a grade and he refused and then she accused him of comming on to her(for not giving her the grade, the part not being said). She was snitched out by her friends, and it never went anywhere. Who knows what would have happended if it went to the courts. Im not saying the catholic church is right for what they did, but maybe thats why they didnt let the courts decide innocence of all the accusations cause even if your innocent your still guilty of being charged. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Duckus Posted May 28, 2010 Share Posted May 28, 2010 This is like an episode of Law and Order: SUV. I always laugh at how ****ed up those episodes are. In the first 20 minutes of every episode they always "bust" the 1st suspect for the horrible sexual crime. They usually arrest them in their place of work in front of crowds of people. Accusing them out loud in front of co-workers, family or friends of being a molester, murderer, rapist, etc. After 5 minutes of interrogation, they realize they got to wrong guy, release him and move onto another suspect. I always sit there and go - "well, that guys life is ****ed. Good luck explaining that to your co-workers. . . ." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BadKarma Posted May 28, 2010 Share Posted May 28, 2010 I was going to post in the other thread about 12 yr old behavior but this one illustrated my point better that kids these days at 12 are probably 4-5 years older in maturity level than they were 20 years ago. This grown man had his career and his life no doubt ruined over the actions of a 12 year old who knew damn well what she was doing. I doubt she realized it would have such far reaching implications but nevertheless this kind of behavior takes a lot more sophistication than I could imagine anyone I went to elementary school were capable of. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hyphenatedbren Posted May 28, 2010 Share Posted May 28, 2010 This is like an episode of Law and Order: SUV. I always laugh at how ****ed up those episodes are.In the first 20 minutes of every episode they always "bust" the 1st suspect for the horrible sexual crime. They usually arrest them in their place of work in front of crowds of people. Accusing them out loud in front of co-workers, family or friends of being a molester, murderer, rapist, etc. After 5 minutes of interrogation, they realize they got to wrong guy, release him and move onto another suspect. I always sit there and go - "well, that guys life is ****ed. Good luck explaining that to your co-workers. . . ." There was an episode similar to this on SVU. A coach gets accused by molestation by one of this daughter's friends. She drew a picture of her molester and when the cops asked if it was the coach she said yes, rather then accuse the actual subject. Turns out, one of his players was the molester (played by Matt Saracen of Friday Night Lights fame) but the girl was scared of him because he threatened to kill her. The guy gets exonerated before the end of the hour but not before his life is totally ruined. Stabler tries to apologize (after berating him when he believed him guilty) and the guy tells him to kick rocks. I was going to post in the other thread about 12 yr old behavior but this one illustrated my point better that kids these days at 12 are probably 4-5 years older in maturity level than they were 20 years ago. I don't think that's true. I think they're exposed to a whole lot more then they were 20 years ago but I don't think they're any more equipped to process the information then they were back then. And, in fact, they may even be less equipped. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BadKarma Posted May 28, 2010 Share Posted May 28, 2010 I don't think that's true. I think they're exposed to a whole lot more then they were 20 years ago but I don't think they're any more equipped to process the information then they were back then. And, in fact, they may even be less equipped. I dont know how you would argue successfully that a child exposed to the content available to these days isn't more equipped to process information than a child 20 years ago was sans internet, cable television etc. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Major Harris Posted May 28, 2010 Share Posted May 28, 2010 The biggest reason I'd never consider being an elementary school or middle school teacher. i'd say this is a worry amongst high school teachers more so than elementary. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stugein Posted May 28, 2010 Author Share Posted May 28, 2010 Oh, come on fellas.We established that 12-year old boys are incapable of understanding what "rape" means and therefore are incapable of understanding the implications of threatening another female with rape. So why the double standard now? How could it possibly be that a 12-year old girl could understand what "sexual molestation" means.... or the consequences of falsely accusing another person of such actions. Hopefully, cooler heads prevail here In the other case you have an idiot kid who was trying to be funny for his pals and failed miserably. In this one you have a bully who intentionally acted to commit harm, knowing that her actions would negatively affect the life of another. I'd wager she saw one of the myriad of news stories on teacher misconduct and assumed she was going to get the teacher that she didn't like fired. I think the biggest difference between the two cases is that in this scenario, while she may not have contemplated the full depth of the suffering that her actions would cause, you have a person who acted with malicious intent to inflict harm. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zguy28 Posted May 28, 2010 Share Posted May 28, 2010 And who says 12 year old's don't know what's going on with their bodies? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zguy28 Posted May 28, 2010 Share Posted May 28, 2010 I was going to post in the other thread about 12 yr old behavior but this one illustrated my point better that kids these days at 12 are probably 4-5 years older in maturity level than they were 20 years ago. This grown man had his career and his life no doubt ruined over the actions of a 12 year old who knew damn well what she was doing. I doubt she realized it would have such far reaching implications but nevertheless this kind of behavior takes a lot more sophistication than I could imagine anyone I went to elementary school were capable of. I know my wife's OB told us (this was 10 years ago now) that when she practiced in Tennessee in the early 90's that 11 year old girls were coming to her office pregnant. When I was in HS back in 91-92 that there were 13 year old's trying to get with HS guys. So, it wasn't much different 20 years ago. Now 30+ years ago, maybe. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JimboDaMan Posted May 28, 2010 Share Posted May 28, 2010 Oh, come on fellas.We established that 12-year old boys are incapable of understanding what "rape" means and therefore are incapable of understanding the implications of threatening another female with rape. So why the double standard now? How could it possibly be that a 12-year old girl could understand what "sexual molestation" means.... or the consequences of falsely accusing another person of such actions. Hopefully, cooler heads prevail here This kind of post from you surprises me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Die Hard Posted May 28, 2010 Share Posted May 28, 2010 In the other case you have an idiot kid who was trying to be funny for his pals and failed miserably. In the other case, I wouldn't pretend to know what the intentions of that kid was.... other than the fact that he was upset at being caught and due process. I find it unlikely that a 12-year old doesn't know what "rape" means.... and going through due process I wouldn't expect him to admit it to a police offer, school official, etc. He could just have easily have lied to them... as this girl lied to authorities about being molested. We'll never know..... and I don't pretend to. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Die Hard Posted May 28, 2010 Share Posted May 28, 2010 This kind of post from you surprises me. Alrighty then. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sniffler Posted May 28, 2010 Share Posted May 28, 2010 This is sad... being an elementary school teacher myself, these types of situations are always in the forefront of your mind. You never want to put yourself in a compromising position for the simple fact that any student at any time could easily make an accusation and ruin your career in the blink of an eye. When I was in the process of getting my undergraduate degree, one of my instructors asked each aspiring teacher to review the McMartin case ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McMartin_preschool_trial ) to keep us informed of the damages such allegations could cause. There was a movie made about it... it changed my life. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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