Sex for Grades? Another Charleston School District Lawsuit

Is Charleston County School District so desperate for math teachers that it's hiring the mentally ill? 

That would seem to be the upshot of the latest scandalous lawsuit brought against the district by the family of a Burke High School student. What twenty-something teacher with a ten-month-old baby wants to have sex with a 17-year-old boy? And where is the baby's father? [Oh, I forgot. We're not supposed to ask that question!]

At least she had to surrender her teaching certificate after her arrest last December. She's out on bail and the case is still pending nine months later.

"The teacher, Jennifer Danielle Olajire-Aro, 27, of Devlin Road on Johns Island, was arrested in December 2017 and charged with one count of sexual battery with a student 16 or 17 years of age, according to court records. She taught pre-calculus and algebra and worked as a tennis coach at Burke and had no prior criminal record". 

"In August 2017, while the student was enrolled in Aro’s math class, she began flirting with him and having conversations about sex with him before, during and after class, according to the lawsuit. The complaint goes on to say that she “encouraged and coerced” John Doe to engage in sexual intercourse with her at the school, in her personal vehicle, at her home and, on at least one occasion, in the presence of her 10-month-old baby. She also sent him inappropriate messages via phone and a social media text application, according to the complaint."

Don't you wonder about that classroom's atmosphere?

“Each time Plaintiff John Doe would dismiss Aro’s advances and requests to perform sexual intercourse with her, Aro would remind Plaintiff John Doe that she alone controlled what grade he would receive in her class,” the lawsuit states. The student said he began skipping math class to avoid his peers after the teacher made “public, direct and obvious advances.”

"In December 2017, after the student resisted her sexual advances, Aro 'acted on her threat and changed Plaintiff John Doe’s math grade from a 98 to an 89,” according to the lawsuit. The student told his mother about the alleged multiple instances of sexual intercourse after his final grade had been entered for the fall 2017 semester. Aro was arrested on Dec. 19, three days before school let out for the winter holiday."

"'If the district won’t fix the problem, the courts will,' said the plaintiffs’ attorney, Mark A. Peper."

How about a psychiatric evaluation too? What ever happened to the idea that teachers should be of good character?