Second-graders Having Sex in Class?

Say it isn't so.

But this is the latest:

In  a second-grade classroom, Oakland, California, a male teacher allowed children in class to undress, down to the skin, and the class watched as two classmates performed oral sex.

How does such a think happen?  Maybe it didn't happen.  Maybe the child who reported it to the teacher's assistant made it all up for attention.

But if it did occur, there are reasons.  A not so pretty, not exhaustive list:

(1) The child performing oral sex might have watched it at home, seen parents or siblings in the act.

(2) The child might have seen porn on a home computer, or pictures, magazines.

(3) The child may have been victimized himself, forced to perform oral sex on an adult or a cousin, a neighbor, a parent, anyone. Coercion, it's called.  Tell and I'll hurt you.
But sometimes it feels good, and being naughty is fun.  No need to tell.

(4) The teacher might have witnessed the child's sexual behavior, seen him touching himself or someone else, and encouraged the sex acts.  Live child porn on the job, irresistible for someone with a sex addiction, perhaps.  Pathetic?  Yes, but an addiction implies powerlessness.

(5) The teacher might be one of those people who photographs children having sex for personal satisfaction or financial gain.  These sell for a premium.

(6) The teacher might have become an elementary school teacher to have access to children.  Taking advantage, exploiting little children, really isn't very hard to do.  They're trusting.

(7) The teacher might be a registered sex offender, may have priors, and somehow evaded his employers.

How can schools screen for such a thing, is the real question. And what about damage control?
How will the administrators at Markham School talk to those second-graders about what they just saw, about what they did, without shaming them, damaging them?

Tell them sex is for adults?  That this variation of fun is something you do when you're all grown-up?  They don't see the point of waiting for pleasure, not usually. They're children. And they see sex on television, that it is attractive, inviting, fun, exciting. The stars of vampire movies are in their teens, and they're clearly attracted to one another, sexually attracted. It's not reserved for adults.

One thing is clear.  We have to talk to the kids, and we can't wait for them to get to that age of maturity, whatever that age seems to be.  Fifty years ago we thought,

We'll talk to them just before they reach puberty, begin to tell them about the birds and the bees.

At this rate puberty will begin in first grade.