Classrooms are not always safe havens. Photo from Flickr.

Today in New Hampshire, high school English teacher Melinda Dennehy turned herself in on charges of lewdness and indecent exposure. Ms. Dennehy is accused of sending nude photos of herself to a 15-year old student as well as sexting (sexually texting) him more than once. The unidentified student also distributed these photos around the school. A book, movie, or tabloid deal may soon bring him some instant cash.

Melinda Dennehy had pursued student

The unidentified 15-year old male student of Melinda Dennehy that she had been pursuing, turned over four nude photographs that Melinda had allegedly emailed to him “several months ago”. He also alleges that he received several sexual text messages from Mrs. Dennehy. Before this student turned this information over to the police, however, he also circulated the nude photos of Ms. Dennehy around the school. Why he chose to wait for several months to copy and distribute these nude photographs is currently unknown.

Melinda Dennehy placed on leave, charged

As soon as administrators were alerted to the nude photographs circulating the school, they identified the teacher in them as Melinda Dennehy. She was immediately placed on paid administrative leave. The next day, she turned herself into police, where she was immediately charged and released on $10,000 bail. Mrs. Dennehy is scheduled to appear in Derry District Court on April 30th.

Melinda Dennehy’s alleged crimes count as a class B felony

Under New Hampshire legal code, if Melinda Dennehy is convicted of the crimes she is accused of, it would qualify as a class B felony because the student was only 15 years old. New Hampshire law would also require that she register as a sexual offender. This would mean that not only could Melinda Dennehy spend time in jail, but in the future she would have to live under a host of legal restrictions. These restrictions would no longer allow her to work in a school or near children, which would mean she would possibly end up having to get loans for people with bad credit just to survive.

Dennehy indicative of increased student / teacher incidents?

Ever since Mary Kay Letourneau, (now married to and living with the student she was convinced of assaulting), there has been increased attention on relationships between female teachers and their teenage students. WorldNetDaily compiled this list of female teachers that have been convicted of inappropriate relationships with male students. Melinda Dennehy seems like just one more name to add to this growing list. It has been called an epidemic, though I would be curious to see a similar list of male teachers accused or convinced of relationships with their female students. However, because there are significantly fewer male teachers, and because female students are less likely to report concerns, the numbers may well be skewed.

Image from Flickr.

As more people embrace new methods of communicating, language must evolve to describe those methods. I admit that I do more communicating via Facebook and online instant messaging than I do by phone or even in person. Even the payday loan store is being replaced by the internet.

Apparently this is true for many, as the the Oxford New American Dictionary has declared “unfriend” the 2009 Word of the Year. In the dictionary, the word is defined as “To remove someone as a ‘friend’ on a social networking site such as Facebook.” This says more than one interesting thing about modern culture.

Are we unfriendly people?

News organizations and even an Oxford Dictionary editor are painting Oxford’s choice for Word of the Year as a reflection of the unfriendliness among us. Christine Lindberg, senior lexicographer for Oxford’s US dictionary program, wrote Is it a comment on the times that our Word of the Year is about rejecting people we once embraced?”

She poses this as a question, and I have an answer: No. It is not a sign of the times. There have always been fickle, petty, vindictive and sometimes downright mean people. There have always been humble, loving people who do uncharacteristically mean things out of anger and spite if they are pushed just so.

The bright side

The positive thing about people having the option to unfriend others is that it’s harmless, and it has taken the place of more damaging methods of expressing anger. Be honest, I’m sure you’d rather be unfriended on Facebook than have your tires slashed or your car keyed or your yard toilet papered.

Yes, unfriending someone is an immature, petty way to deal with interpersonal conflict. However, I think the fact that it gives an outlet without doing property or any other sort of damage is positive. Yes, feelings can get hurt when someone gets unfriended, and it could lead to other consequences, but the act of unfriending itself is quite harmless.

More new words

Not surprisingly, many of the other finalists for Word of the Year were technologically inspired. On the short list was hashtag, a symbol (#) used on Twitter to allow people to search for terms. Netbook and paywall also were finalists. Confirming that text messaging is one of today’s most popular methods of communication, “sexting” and “intexicated” also were finalists. Sexting, of course, means sending explicit messages or photos. Intexicated refers to being distracted because of texting while driving.

The dismal economy also triggered new words, including “funemployed,” which Oxford now defines as “taking advantage of one’s newly unemployed status to have fun or pursue other interests.” Another finalist for Word of the Year: “zombie bank: a financial institution whose liabilities are greater than its assets, but which continues to operate because of government support.”

Thanks to a politics, “teabagger” and “death panel” are now officially words. As my parting piece of news, I want you to know the phrase “tramp stamp” has made it into the dictionary. Good job, America.