by Dr. Pelham Mead, from the novel, The Junior High.
Chapter 4- Sex in the school
There three types of students in Junior High School, the oversexed, the undersexed and those that did not know the difference. Generally the 9 th grade students had the most hormones pumping, and were of course the most physically mature compared to a 7 th grader. A 7 th grade girl had to really be physically well developed in the chest area in order for a 9 th grade boy to notice them. 7 th grade boys were still playing with yo yo’s, and masturbating at home with Playboy magazines. 8 th grade boys were the freaks of physical development. Some would be five feet tall, and some would be 6 feet tall with hair growth on their faces. It was the growing spurt year in 8 th grade. The girls on the other hand developed physically in 6 th grade, and by the time they got into 7 th grade they had full grown breast and shapely legs. It was a confusing age of sudden growth for Junior High students.
Makeup was a must for all girls regardless of age. If parents did not allow makeup the girls would put makeup on in the bathroom of the school before classes started. Mini-skirts were in fashion in the 1970’s, and tight jeans in the 1980’s for girls. The mini-skirts were so short that a teacher standing in front of a class could not help but notice the girl’s underwear or shorts under the mini-skirts. A male teacher had to remember to keep looking up. Female teachers just ignored the field of bloomers. It was impossible for a girl with a mini-skirt to sit down. They had to cross their legs to hide what lies beneath. Boys were constantly distracted by the amount of leg in the isles in classes. It was a battle of the hormones for boys. Sometimes girl’s mini-skirts were so short that they had to be sent home to change into something more modest.
One day during a faculty meeting in the school cafeteria after school a girl in a mini-skirt walked by in the hallway outside the meeting. Her miniskirt was so short that when she walked behind the 11-inch wide board that joined two glass partitions it looked like she had nothing on from the waist down. Even the Principal who was facing the hallway stopped for a second as the girl walked by unaware of the visual trick the 11 inch board was providing by hiding the girls very short mini-skirt. The faculty all turned around to see what was going on and laughed when they saw the girl walking by with what seemed to be no skirt.
When teaching health education classes most students thought they could have sex without protection, and have no problems. Some had weird ideas of what sex really was. Girls were usually more knowledgeable than the boys because girls would tell one another about sex and sexual encounters they had. Boys were on a different planet when it came to sex. They main object in life was to have sexual intercourse with a girl and ejaculate or play with their yo yos. Sex meant little more than satisfying a physical desire.
Many boys never had their fantasies come true, because they had no clue how to approach a girl or what to do on a date. Going steady was one way to seek security by giving a girl a cheap ring or bracelet with their initials engraved. This signified that they were going out together, or going steady, and that the relationship was monogamous. If you dated a girl or a boy more than once you may be considered “going out with one another.” Girls sent notes to one another in class talking about their dates, and problems with their new boyfriends. Boys on the other hand never sent notes talking about their love life or dating. That was considered “not too cool.” Strangely many students believed that is was easier to engage in oral sex to prevent pregnancy. The truth however is once a girl engaged in oral sex, regular intercourse was the next thing she would want to experiment with. Boys were more than willing to engage in any kind of sex to satisfy their hormonal desires. In one year during the 1970’s over a dozen students were caught having oral sex in the school building or behind the gym after school. It seemed to be a sign of the times with a “sexual revolution” going on in society in the 1970’s.
There were a few girls that got pregnant however pregnant girls was not that uncommon. Girls got pregnant usually with older high school students or an older boy in the community. Getting pregnant was still a major taboo in the 1960’s and 1970’s. One day a girl would be in school, and the next day they were gone. The district once they learned of a pregnancy transferred the girl to an alternative school in the district. All of the major conduct problem students and the pregnant girls were housed in this facility. Many girls hid their pregnancy by wearing lose clothing and hiding their morning sickness.
One large black girl qualified for the boy’s football team on a Title 9 federal equality ruling. She passed the physical test, and the football skills tests knocking most of the boys to the ground with her flying tackles. She had a mean spirit, and was very muscular and powerful at 165 pounds. Many of the football players were afraid of her temper and strength, but wouldn’t admit it.
Her classroom was the “emotionally handicapped self-contained classroom.” that came under special education. In these self-contained classrooms a teacher and an assistant worked with only ten to twelve emotionally disturbed students at a time. Emotionally disturbed meant that the student tested as being intelligent but violent with a history of attacking a teacher with a knife or weapon. Many of these children came from New York City street gangs that were assigned to group homes in the suburbs.
The black girl’s name was Wanda. She had been a member of the Corona Debs girls’ gang in Long Island City, New York. She was arrested for assaulting a teacher at William Cullen Bryant High School in Long Island City. The courts transferred her upstate New York to a group home in the High Mountain School district. All of the students in the emotionally disturbed class feared her because she was physically very intimating. If anyone talked back to her she punched them in the face. Her reputation around the entire school was well known.
One day when she was in the “emotionally handicapped physical education class.” the Physical Education teacher challenged Wanda to a “one on one “ basketball game. Amazingly, she beat the teacher by two points in a 21-point game. That night after that very strenuous “one on one” basketball game, Wanda delivered an 8 pound 3 ounce baby girl at 2:00 am in the early morning.
What a shocker? No one had a clue that she was pregnant. Even the Physical Education teacher was shocked. She always was a big girl, and wore loose clothing. It was impossible to tell if she was pregnant or just fat. Wanda’s Uncle Billy seduced her at her home when her parents were working. He used no protection, and she got pregnant. A month after the delivery, Wanda came back to school with her little baby girl, as if nothing had happened. She showed the baby to the office staff, and the teachers, never appearing to have any shame. She never came back to Cucamonga Junior High, because she had no one to watch her baby. She quit school after her child was born and went to work at a local grocery story while her grandmother watched the baby.
The greatest sexual stigma of all is teachers having sex with students. This occurred on a rare basis, but rumors swirled all the time that some young male teacher was banging the hell out of some beautiful busty teenage girl who was under 16 years of age. One incident branded all the other teachers as well. Most of the teachers lived normal lives and never got involved with their students sexually. But it only takes one teacher to make it seem teachers was having sex with their students. After all it was the 1970’s the “age of free sex,” and “social revolution.”
One night a custodian was cleaning a science classroom after school hours around 6:00 pm, when he heard voices coming from inside a science prep room. He knocked on the door but there was no answer. He continued knocking, but still no answer. Afterward the custodian left the classroom and continued cleaning down the hall. Inside the science prep room was Social Studies Joe Bigone who emerged pulling up his pants with a 15-year-old beautiful brunette teenage girl, who was adjusting her bra under her shirt. Apparently they were both fooling around in the prep room. The custodian saw someone leave but did not recognize the teacher or student from the other end of the hallway. That did not stop him from gossiping to his buddies that he thought he saw a teacher and a student sneaking out of a classroom after school hours. This made for great story telling during the custodian dinner break in the teachers lounge. They all laughed at the story. Eventually the story in various forms got around the school.
Romances between teachers were not illegal, but often discouraged by the administration. The district make it a policy to not allow married couples to work in the same building thinking that they might be demonstrating their love for one another on the job.
One romance between a male teacher in the special education department, and a female teacher in the Math department sparked a major problem one year. It seems a fellow female teacher in the special education department was jealous of their romance so she called in the “District Supervisor of Special Education” to do an evaluation of the teacher. The teacher was informed of the pending evaluation and passed the evaluation with flying colors. Then, the word got out who called the district Supervisor of Special Education. The whistle blower had her payroll check stolen from her mailbox and that was the last time paychecks were put in the mailboxes. That incident had a domino effect on office procedures and the way paychecks were distributed.
After that incident, every teacher had to sign for his or her paycheck with the Principal’s executive secretary. The romance continued to the point the even the Principal became aware of it. The two teachers would sit on one another’s laps in the teacher lounge, and make everyone else in the room uncomfortable.
Late in May of 1981 a custodian was opening a cleaning closet in the far building extension hallway of Cucamonga Junior High School only to find the special education male teacher naked having sex with the naked female Math teacher. “Oops, I am sorry,” said the custodian as he opened the closet door. “Please don’t tell on us Mr. Brown,” Sam Shine the special education begged. “Oh my God I am so embarrassed, “ said Sally Fine the Math teacher. “We were just fooling around, “ said Mr. Shine. “I am sorry but I have to tell my boss or lose my job,” said Mr. Brown the custodian. Mr. Shine, and Ms. Fine begged for several minutes as they put their clothes back on. It was most embarrassing for everyone involved.
The custodian reported the incident to his supervisor and the following day both teachers were placed on paid leave for “conduct unbecoming.” Since they had no tenure they were summarily dismissed immediately after a hearing with the Director of Secondary Education. Both teachers went on to work at another school district further upstate New York the next year, and their extra sexual activity was expunged from their record in exchange for their resignation letters. The gossip mill passed these stories about the two teachers for many months until the end of the school year. Some teachers said that Ms. Fine, the Math teacher, was giving the Special Education teacher Mr. Shine, blowjobs everyday during her lunch break in her back coat closet.
Who knows if the stories were true, but it made a great story just the same. The Special Education teacher’s name was Jeffrey Smarts. The expression that developed out of this incident was called “Jeff ring a teacher, “ or “don’t Jeffrey me.” It was a very personal and very funny expression that only the teachers knew about. Because of the paranoia of being accused of having sex with a student or another teacher, teachers were often warned to be careful. Teachers were instructed never to be in a room alone with a student. A male teacher should never be in a classroom alone with a female student, and a female teacher should never be in a classroom with a male student. Teachers learned to be naturally paranoid when it came to touching students or getting too close. Because of a few isolated incidents with teacher-student sex scandals all teachers were on alert. It was difficult not to notice the female students unbuttoning their shirts down their chest or wearing mini-skirts that left nothing to the imagination. Once a student made up a story about the teacher doing something sexual, he or she was instantly guilty. Many times students were vindictive because of poor grades in a class, and they turned on a teacher by making up a story how the teacher had sexually abused them. It was the way the administrators handled the problems that made things worse by violating the teacher’s rights and believing the student’s story until it turned out to be a hoax.
