33-year-old former English teacher Marcie L. Rousseau of Thomas Township, Michigan has been arrested and was formally arraigned yesterday in Saginaw County on 21 counts of third and fourth degree Sexual Conduct stemming from a relationship she had with a student from May of 2009 until this past February.
Rousseau has also been charged with eight more counts of sexual conduct in Midland County because she allegedly had sex with the kid there as well.
Rousseau was placed on leave back in February when the investigation into her activities began and she resigned back on June 16th. Rousseau taught for nine years at Freeland High School.
What I find interesting is that CNN and a boatload of other news sites have picked up on the story and are airing it as if this should come as some kind of surprise. Each of the stories, including CNN’s mention a couple of other cases and a quote from Robin Sax (author of Predators and Molesters), “We’re finally realizing not only that sexual assault exists and how prevalent it is, but there is such a thing as a female perpetrator” that has been taken out of context.
They are wrong.
I agree with Sax about a lot of stuff, particularly how prevalent female predators are. I just don’t think that the country as a whole, or the main-stream-media in particular, get it. Most of the general population thinks that a female teacher having sex with a student is an entirely different thing than a male teacher having sex with a student. This is just another damned news cycle for the media and the story that’s being presented as if we should be so surprised will be something else next week and the handful of crime sites that actually cover this stuff on a regular basis will go back to being the only ones who really do.
Rousseau is out on $255,000 bond.
