SAN DIEGO, CA. Just when you thought it was safe to assume that all the local teachers who have had sex with students in area schools had been exposed, so to say, here comes another one. Craig E Kelso, a teacher at Granger Junior High in National City. Holy cow! (Expletives don’t really do it here.)
Yes, unbelievable. KNSD-TV today announced the following:
The National City Police Department arrested Craig Edward Kelso, 38, Tuesday in connection with the alleged sex crime. Kelso is a teacher at Granger Junior High School in National City. Police said he has been placed on administrative leave. The girl involved in the case was a former student at the school, police said.
[Go here for the original article.]
[Go here for our earlier posts on “Sex in the City Schools”.]
Obviously, if you compare the number of teachers convicted or accused of having sex with students with the total number of teachers County-wide, you wind up with a really small number, a very small fraction of the total. But that is not the point. Teachers are placed in positions of responsibility and for even a small number of them to take sexual advantage of their vulnerable young students is outrageous. And for this San Diego County to have 11 teachers in this situation just in the last two years makes you shake your head in wonderment, and ask stupid questions, like, ‘what is in their water?’
Are these signs of a moral break-down? Or are we as a society so sex-obsessed that we shouldn’t be surprised with this type of “spill-over”? Or has this type of thing been going on for a long time, and due to our instant and ever pervasive technological communications we are learning about every case now?
What do you think?
{ 10 comments… read them below or add one }
Interestingly, back in June 2005, Craig E Kelso wrote a response to a piece on an educational blog about Granger Jr. High. Here it is:
Editor,
Granger Junior High School is the ugly stepchild of the Sweetwater Union High School District (“School subject: Success,” Tanya Sierra, June 18th, 2005). Long thought to be a stepping-stone for career minded administrators looking for a ‘worked in a tough school’ resume jewel, we’ve been straddled with the virus of hideously low expectations because no one will take responsibility for its historically dismal, and chronic, failure (fifty years and counting). Mention to someone, ANYONE, in the district that you work at Granger, and you’re likely to get a “Oh, I am sorry!” in response. That’s changing, though admittedly not as quickly and smoothly as we, the staff, would like. Susan Mitchell, Granger’s principal profiled in Ms. Sierra’s piece, is crazy in love with Granger. She’s at every after, before, and weekend school event. She’s got a hand in every aspect of the school, attending all the committees, overseeing all parts of the school’s running. She’s in every classroom on a weekly basis. She’s here at 7am and won’t leave until 7pm, a typical day for her. I’ve personally seen a twenty-fold increase in homework production and quality from students, and that can be directly correlated back to Mrs. Mitchell’s after school tutoring program. Changing fifty years of working a certain way, fifty years of slow, grinding progress (if at all) has not been easy for either Mrs. Mitchell or the staff. Parents, who pay us, are only concerned with one thing: their children learning. Granger students are more focused on academics than at any other time in my five years of teaching here. Changing Granger will take a “no more pobrecitos” attitude from both the administration AND the staff.
Craig Kelso
Granger Junior High School
History/Social Science Department Chair
In my opinion, this kind of thing has been going on as long as there have been people on the earth and it’s not likely to stop, we just hear about it more often now.
My eighth grade algebra teacher was a groper, I know what he tried to do with me, but not what he may have done to others girls who were less able to stand up to him. I never could concentrate in his class and refused to stay after for his brand of “tutoring” and ended up failing his class.
That was a long time ago, and in an age when people didn’t talk about those things out loud, but they happened and happened to me more times than I want to remember.
Now 12…
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/metro/20080718-1152-bn18molest.html
redneck – I did check it out, thanks for the info. At least the 6 year old victim was NOT a student of this teacher. The other victims in this post are students, as I understand.
Not that I feel any better that the 6 year old that the article focused on was at least outside the school environment, but this was also in the article…
“Police are investigating a second allegation of molestation that may have involved a victim where he previously worked, Gonzales said. The second alleged victim is not a relative. ”
Fuzzy here whether we’re talking about a school or a McDonald’s where he cleaned the play pen working for his credentials…my assumption was that it would’ve been another campus.
We belive that Mr. Kelso did not do such thing and if it was true then probably he was influenced by the girl
On Monday, Sept. 8, 2008. Craig Kelso, entered a plea of guilty to having sex with a 15 year old. Prosecutors said the former history teacher at National City’s Granger Junior High had several sexual encounters with a female student, including one on campus. Kelso will be sentenced Oct. 7. He faces more than four years in prison.
i.. personally was a former student of craig kelso and he is not the man you all are putting him out to be. funny how you all sit here and talk about a person you dont even know.
I was a student of Mr. Kelso, and he is one of the most influential people in my life and has turned my thoughts on life into a whole new perspective. I thank him for being there through all the problems I faced at home. Although he did this, he will always remain as a man the had great influence on my life. I believe i shall be really successful in life due to his help. He is alot better than a lot of people say he is. Most of his students loved his class, it was so fun and so filled with information. May he be safe while he is in jail. God bless, I pray for you Mr. Kelso.
MUCH LOVE AND RESPECT,
YOUR STUDENT ALLEN JR.
well i jus ur all wrong since he did plead gulity :)
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