Unwelcome Inspiration

A front page story in our paper yesterday featured a well-known poet in San Antonio--someone I barely know--who for years taught poetry in local high schools, colleges, and UTSA.  He's probably in his early sixties.

Several women who were his students have recently begun telling stories of this man taking them under his wing, tutoring them in poetry, and gushing over their work.  They were, he said, "his muses."  They should have been his students, period.

He crossed some lines that should never be crossed between teachers and students, especially young and vulnerable girls of 12 and 14....

Unfortunately, this story is quite common: older men preying on innocent young girls, grooming them, and violating them in various ways before they are old enough to understand what is going on.  At those young ages, girls may think they are more mature than they are--and these men tell them that they are.  But they don't usually have the language to tell adults what is happening to them, or they think they are all alone, or they are confused by the excessive attention.

This doesn't just happen in Alabama and Texas; it happens everywhere.  And most of the time, it takes years for little girls to grow up and have the language to tell what happened to them.

I admire these young women who are now telling what happened, and their stories are so similar regarding this man!  In this story by Lauren Caruba ("Unwelcome Inspiration"), all the women talk about his flattery and unwelcome crossing of boundaries to claim these women as "his" inspirers.

All day I have been thinking about the last lines of the article by one of the brave women who has spoken out:

"If somebody steals your wallet, you report it to the police.  If somebody steals your childhood, you don't tell anyone."