Neb. case illustrates teacher sex abuse issues

updated 10:55 p.m. ET Nov. 10, 2007

LEXINGTON, Neb. - Back in August, the rumor around Lexington Middle School was that 25-year-old math teacher Kelsey Peterson had a boyfriend — a 13-year-old former student.

People had complained to administrators three months earlier that Peterson spent too much time hanging out with the kids. When new complaints reached administrators linking her to the student in August, her principal gave her a verbal warning, but that was it.

"We did not put an investigator on her and watch her," said district Superintendent Todd Chessmore, who has ordered all school and district employees to not speak with reporters. "We did not see this as something except for something we needed to deal with in a very informal manner."

A couple of months later, after a confrontation with Chessmore, Peterson and the boy took off. Going missing for a week, they were eventually picked up by a Mexican police officer in Baja California. The boy said in an interview with The Associated Press later that he and the teacher had sex twice. She cried when they were parted.

Now Peterson is in federal custody and expected to face federal charges of crossing state lines to have sex with a minor, an offense punishable by 10 years to life in prison and a $250,000 fine.

Experts who study sexual misconduct by teachers say district officials should have seen a bad situation when they first fielded complaints, and done more.

"If a school district has reason to give warning, you conduct an investigation," said Robert Shoop, director of Kansas State University's Cargill Center for Ethical Leadership. "You don't just say 'Be a good person,' and then go about your business as if nothing has ever happened. You have to pay attention to what's going on."

‘Law enforcement is there 24/7’
Wayne Promisel, a retired Virginia detective who has investigated many sex abuse cases, said if the district had enough reason to put Peterson on administrative leave and start an investigation, it should have called police before calling the teacher.

"If you're that committed to realize that you think there's something afoot, that's when you ... call in the locals to bring objectivity to it," Promisel said. "Law enforcement is there 24/7, 365 and they don't turn away complaints, especially when kids are involved."

The case comes at a time when lawmakers and governors in seven states and Congress are expressing renewed interest in the issue of sexual misconduct by teachers following an investigation by the AP that concluded last month.

The AP found that states took action against the licenses of 2,570 educators from 2001 through 2005 following allegations of sexual misbehavior, and that investigators and academics who study the problem believe it is badly underreported. There are about 3 million public school teachers nationwide.

‘Rumors are gold’
The Peterson case has similarities to many of the incidents that the AP examined. The student was troubled, the teacher popular. She was trusted in the community and viewed as "cool" by students, who would gather at her classroom and at her home. Authorities, when rumors started, decided not to immediately pull the teacher from the classroom.

"Rumors are gold," said Mary Jo McGrath, a California attorney who has worked on teacher sexual abuse cases for three decades. "Rumors truly will light the way to tangible evidence of what's going on."

Shoop said the circumstances of the case point toward a certain type of teacher who commits abuse: one with a poor sense of boundaries and ethics, who allows the relationship with a student to go beyond that of a close mentor.

"These people do a tremendous amount of harm to children, but oftentimes the adult says that they didn't do anything wrong, that it's true love and that people just don't understand," Shoop said. "The female or the male who quote 'falls in love' with a child doesn't have an understanding that they're actually raping and exploiting this child."

Neighbors, former classmates, students and Chessmore say Peterson coached sports, played basketball with her 8-year-old daughter in her front yard and was popular as a student and a teacher.

‘A good Christian upbringing’
People who know Peterson say her daughter was born when Peterson was a junior at Lexington High. Her then-boyfriend was the father, but the pair broke up and he eventually moved to Texas.

"She had a good Christian upbringing," said Julie Rosentreader, 25, who went to middle school with Peterson.

Peterson's daughter was believed to be with her parents in nearby Gothenburg, Neb. Multiple attempts by the AP to contact them were unsuccessful.

The boy became Peterson's math student in 2005, though their association continued after she taught him.

The boy told the AP that Peterson helped him through a tough time earlier this year by listening and writing to him while he was at the Nebraska Boys Ranch in western Nebraska, a home for at-risk youth. The boy said he went to the home after trying to run away from his home in Lexington.

He described her as his best friend — not his girlfriend — and said he could tell her anything.

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