On a warm day in June 1999, probably about 3 p.m., a stampede of boys and girls charged out of Mrs. Moore’s seventh grade class at Woodrow Wilson Middle School in Clifton, N.J. Some went to camp. Others lounged around their houses, trying to avoid their summer chores. They went to the mall, the arcade, the pool, their other parent’s house — stuff kids do in their free time.
But no matter where they went or how they spent their summer, they all bid a happy farewell to Mrs. Moore: “No more homework, no more books, no more teachers’ dirty looks,” or something like that.
One little boy, however, wasn’t so lucky. Or perhaps he was the luckiest one of all, depending on your outlook. He saw a sharp decline in the homework and the books, but not the third item. That summer, and well into the next fall, he got enough dirty looks to last a lifetime.
Pamela Diehl-Moore, age 43, had a six-month love affair with one of her 13-year-old students. She was arrested in February 2001 and subsequently lost her teaching license. Moore pleaded guilty to sexual assault and expected to receive a three-year sentence. Instead, she got a slap on the wrist.

New Jersey Superior Court Judge Bruce Gaeta gave her only five years probation. “I really don’t see the harm that was done,” he said, “and certainly society doesn’t need to be worried. It’s just something between two people that clicked beyond the teacher-student relationship.”
This was an act of incredible bias — not to mention stupidity — on the part of the judge. Had a 43-year-old man spent his summer screwing a 13-year-old girl, he’d be swinging from a tree branch by now, or at the very least fending off his cellmate in the shower. Likewise if the 43-year-old and the 13-year-old had been the same gender. But, hey, boys will be boys, and what 13-year-old boy doesn’t dream of a steamy encounter with an older woman he knows? Lord knows I used to. I was a bona fide pervert in the seventh grade and so were most of my friends and accomplices.
Here’s where Judge Gaeta misjudged. Thirteen-year-olds have about as much logic and reason as spider monkeys, but with twice the sex drive. Most couldn’t make a sensible decision if the instructions were tattooed on their forearms. That’s why they need older, wiser, more experienced people to guide them through those tumultuous years. People like seventh-grade teachers.
Teachers are more than simply authority figures and learning aides. A teacher is a surrogate parent, a mentor and a therapist. There is a sacred bond between a student and a teacher, a bond that should never be violated.
The bottom line is that society is responsible for protecting its youth until they are able to make semi-sound decisions on their own. And right now, with people like Judge Gaeta in positions of power and people like Pamela Diehl-Moore in the classroom, we are seriously slacking in that responsibility. Contrary to what Gaeta says, society does need to worry.