Too feel devastated for the wife of the teacher who has run off to France with his 15 year old pupil?

[chipsandmushypeas]

What on earth went through his head when he decided to do this?! The poor woman has taken all her social networks down out of humiliation I presume. link

Crazy.

voyeuristic Good French word.

When I was 15, I was no innocent schoolgirl. I certainly knew how to flirt, how to attract men, and I do mean men, as I had no problems passing for over 18, and never got ID'd when I was out in the pubs.

While I was at school there were affairs between pupils and teacher.. and I know of one couple who are still together now, married with children.

I don't think 15 year olds are all sweet and innocent. They can be stunningly beautiful, sexy and flirtaceous.
However if you are a young male teacher you shouldn't be teaching girls if you can't handle the fact that some of the sexy beautiful girls will fancy you and flirt with you.
The 15 year old flirting with her teacher isn't doing anything wrong. The teacher who flirts back and then goes out with the girl is.

flirtatious Another good French word.

Loads of things don't add up about this story:

If they had their phones 'confiscated' by police as was reported () then how did she text her friend to say she'd got to France ok?

He is a prolific blogger and twitter user and he was openly replying to her 'romantically' on Twitter ("I want to run away with you" "wake up naked with you" etc) but his muso friends and other contacts thought nothing of it even though he is married? Similarly Megan's older sister etc.

Personally I hope they throw the book at him.

To add to the anecdotes from school, there was a teacher at my school who seduced several girls in the 70s and went on to marry an ex pupil. The seduced girls came forward late 90s and it turned out there were loads more. It made national news and he was jailed. Most shocking to me was female teachers' reactions to it (I'd left school by the time it came out) who acted like he was some sort of injured party and the girls were whores. Disgusting.

you don't need your phone to text anyone from your number, you can do it from any computer, or indeed anyone elses phone.

you can also buy a new sim card for less than a quid and put credit on it...

Maybe the text came from a new French PAYG that is now switched off. Or they borrowed one from someone on a pretext of being out of credit.

ITV reported on the early evening news that the police had examined her phone but found nothing immediately incriminating, but had advised the school to suspend him whilst they continued investigations. The school spoke to him about suspension on Wednesday and on the Thursday they went.

He wasn't openly tweeting her, or even replying to her tweets. He was just tweeting thoughts. He never referred to her, or named her in the tweets. It can be presumed they are to Megan, but at the time I can see why her older sister wasn't concerned. Why would she be following her little sister's maths teacher on twitter and then linking his indirect tweets to her.

They said last night, or maybe this morning, that Megan didn't use her phone to text her friendl, IIRC.

This case will be on CRIMEWATCH tomorrow night apparently.

The school spoke to him about suspension? Did they actually suspend him? Seems not as they were apparently expecting him in on Friday. And did they warn Megan's parents? If her parents had known, surely they wouldn't have fallen for the 'I'm staying with a friend' excuse on Thursday...

Is it definitely a text that Megan has sent to a friend? The report I heard referred to a 'message' and since I'd also read she hadn't got her phone with her, I imagined it was more likely to be a Facebook message or other online channel of communication.

The problem with her contacting people wouldn't be mainly the lack of her own phone - as has been said, you can easily get a new PAYG phone - but more knowing the numbers to ring or text. I only know my DH's mobile number off by heart. If I wanted to ring any of my friends or family and didn't have my phone with me, my problem would be not having their number. I assume she would know her own home number, but maybe she doesn't, or wants to speak to a friend rather than directly to her parents.

'The school spoke to him about suspension? Did they actually suspend him?'

It wasn't clear from the wording of the news report (I wondered when I heard it). Given the variable reporting standards on this story, I don't draw definite conclusions, other than that he knew of the investigation just before they went.

You can just use webtext from any computer, its stores all your numbers. Honestly, do you think you need to have your own physical phone in this day and age to send a text?

Like some above posters, I also find it rather disgusting that this story is generating such media attention and such consternation when children up and down the country are abused and mistreated.

Yes, it was wrong of the guy to start a relationship with a girl half her age and treat his own wife horribly, but compared to some absolute horrors out there it in no way deserves either the police time or the media exposure it is getting.

half his age, sorry

Aramis - that's the argument speeding drivers use, "surely you have drug dealers and murderers to catch" - just because someone else has committed a much worse crime is no reason to not charge someone of a lesser crime. They need the 'much worse' crimes brought to the police attention, this crime has been reported, so it's being dealt with.

It needs the media exposure because they need people to look out for them, I'm sure if he hadn't taken her out of the country and the police knew where they were in the UK, they would have done all they could to keep it out of the media spotlight. As it is, a judgement has been made that the best way to get them back is to have as many people as possible looking out for them.

What a mess this situation is. How could this man who claims to love her destroy her life like this - taking her out of school, out of the country, cutting her off completely from family and friends - at age 15! Breathtakingly selfish, if nothing else. He has facilitated this hugely rash act presumably because he himself was backed into a corner through the investigation. He may not have anticipated the huge media interest but that is only going to make this girl's life even more difficult if/when she returns. She is absolutely a victim to me - how he can think of himself as a good person and simultaneously do this beggars belief.

If he really loved her, he should have left the school, found another job and waited until she was 16. Hardly insurmountable things to do. The fact that he didn't do any of this makes me seriously question his motives.

I do feel sorry for the wife. I also feel sorry for Megan as she has a desperately mixed up home life. She has three dads so far at the age of fifteen.

Aramis she is a missing child for god sakes with a predatory man in a position of trust! Why the hell should it NOT generate media attention? So im assuming if it was your child you'd be happy for it to not be mentioned?

oh, and I resent the idea that 15 year olds are all sexually flirtatious lolitas.
I, and most of my friends, were very innocent at 15 and had barely kissed boys, never mind running off with a 30 year old teacher.
Sadly, girls who do this sort of thing are vulnerable and exploited because of this.

You think it's 'disgusting' that it's generated so much media attention?

You're actually offended that this is considered news worthy?

She is a child. He was her teacher. It IS a big issue.

I fucking despair sometimes.

It is irrelevant whether any 15 year old is 'innocent' or a flirt, or any thing else.

A child should be able to lie down nacked and invite sex with a teacher and the teacher should walk away and report it.

15 year old girls have always been attracted to some teachers. Not just teachers, at my RC all girs school we had a trainee priest for a few weeks, I think we were all a little bit in love with him. There was certainly a lot of flirting going on. An it was all one sided.

That poor guy (trainee priest), 1000 girls all flirting to a greater or lesser extent, I think the 11 year olds just smiled a lot and wanted him to bless their rosary beads (boy that sounds like a euphamism).

Teachers are in a position of trust. It is up to the teacher to not flirt back, not hold hands, make sure (s)he is not alone with a flirting student.