California Teacher, 41 resigns after leaving wife, kids for student, 18

[Deberg_1990]

Can you really stop true love?


http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/headline...ormer-teacher/



An angry California mother is alleging abuse now that her 18-year-old daughter is living with her former high school teacher, who left his wife and children to move into an apartment with the young woman.

James Hooker, 41, quit his job after going public with his love for Jordan Powers, who stopped attending classes at her Modesto high school and left home to be with her former business teacher.

The girl’s mother is skeptical of the couple’s claims that nothing sexual happened between them, and exactly when the relationship became physical has become the center of a police investigation.

“She looked up to him,” mom Tammie Powers said. “[He was in the] position of an educator, [and you] don’t abuse your student. Period. She’s still in high school. She still lives at home. She has a curfew. … That’s not OK.”

The couple maintains that their feelings for each other blossomed slowly by spending time together during and after school, and then via phone calls and text messages. The two first met when Jordan was a high school freshman at James Enochs High School, but they say they only developed romantic feelings after she turned 18 in September.

“[He's] my best friend. I mean, he’s more than just a lover,” Jordan Powers said of Hooker, who has a daughter a year younger than her and attended the same high school.

Hooker said that while Jordan Powers was a student in his business class, he didn’t think twice about her. “She was just a student,” he said. “There was no attraction. There was nothing that was out of the ordinary, as opposed to any other student. We were very much a teacher-student role.”

Tammie Powers is unconvinced. As soon as she discovered a long log of text message exchanges, she went straight to the police. She waged her own war on Facebook, posting a letter that went viral telling everyone that classmates took photos of her daughter sitting on Hooker’s lap when she was still his student.

She says that she also discovered 8,000 text messages between the two, along with late-night phone calls and email exchanges that took place when she was still a minor.

“That’s pursuit, in my opinion, with some type of intent,” she told ABC News 10 in California.

But none of the late-night calls or endless texts were a red flag of inappropriateness to him, and says that people looking for proof of an unacceptable relationship before Jordan was 18 are just inquisitive about their connection, Hooker said.

“I think that they’re just digging for something that wasn’t there. I mean, of course, they’re going to be curious,” Hooker added. “But I know for a fact that there was nothing.”

Although Jordan has stopped attending classes, she is now doing independent study through the school and plans to walk at her graduation.

Hooker confirmed that he is under investigation by the Modesto Police Department, but is confident he will be completely cleared of any allegations of inappropriate behavior. He said that he understands that people don’t understand their relationship.

“I think the stigma of the teacher-student relationship just makes it messy, makes it really hard for people to get through to the point that we really do like each other, he said. “We really do want to have a future together.”




http://www.sacbee.com/2012/02/29/430...gns-after.html

[jAZ]

This is the least concerned I've ever found myself when reading one of these stories.

I think it's because the guy is so non-defensive about it.

If you are going to do something like this, this sounds like the most well handled case I've ever heard about.

If it were my daughter, I'd be super pissed. But just reading the story, it sounds potentially legit. It would really depend on the mental/emotional state of the girl and how he treats her.

[Predarat]

Where were these horny 18 year old female students when I was a teacher?

[Deberg_1990]

Originally Posted by MTG#10

So some chick is claiming he did this to her 14 years ago? Why is she just now coming forward?

It was probably something the girls mother dug up, ans convinced the girl to come forward somehow.
Posted via Mobile Device

[philfree]

Originally Posted by Deberg_1990

It was probably something the girls mother dug up, ans convinced the girl to come forward somehow.
Posted via Mobile Device

This guys messed up but I wonder how much this chick is getting paid by the other girls mom?

[KCrockaholic]

Originally Posted by Predarat

Where were these horny 18 year old female students when I was a teacher?

I knew it. Teachers fantasize about their students.

[qabbaan]

This guy is going to die alone, a sad lonely old man who drove his family away. I hope the high school tang in his forties was worth it

[Predarat]

Originally Posted by KCrockaholic

I knew it. Teachers fantasize about their students.

Only the 18 yr olds.

[alnorth]

Originally Posted by Stewie

Isn't there a statute of limitations, or does it not apply in these types of cases?

I was wondering the same thing, this isn't murder or something that can be punishable by life in prison, and the woman is now 31 years old, how could the statute of limitations have possibly not run out?

I was bored enough to look through the huge California penal code to first find the exact law he violated (since she was 17 and not either 16, or 14 or younger, it looks like the most he can get is 1 year, but it'll put him on the sex offender registry), and then to find the time allowed for a criminal complaint for that particular law. It looks to me like this guy is going to get nailed because of the priest sex abuse cases.

Apparently, they recently amended the CA statute of limitations to give victims of various sex crimes while they were minors (e.g. priests molesting boys years ago who are now adults) another shot at it. For this particular crime, before they amended it, the statute should have run out 3 years ago at the absolute latest, but the priest sex abuse laws give the DA one year to prosecute after a victim reports the sexual abuse to the cops if the statute had run out and if a small list of other requirements are met, which have probably all been met in this case.

I'm guessing this woman decided to go to the cops after seeing this guy in the news. He would have probably gotten away with it if he had stayed with his family and kept a low profile for the rest of his life.

[Valiant]

Originally Posted by alnorth

I was wondering the same thing, this isn't murder or something that can be punishable by life in prison, and the woman is now 31 years old, how could the statute of limitations have possibly not run out?

I was bored enough to look through the huge California penal code to first find the exact law he violated (since she was 17 and not either 16, or 14 or younger, it looks like the most he can get is 1 year, but it'll put him on the sex offender registry), and then to find the time allowed for a criminal complaint for that particular law. It looks to me like this guy is going to get nailed because of the priest sex abuse cases.

Apparently, they recently amended the CA statute of limitations to give victims of various sex crimes while they were minors (e.g. priests molesting boys years ago who are now adults) another shot at it. For this particular crime, before they amended it, the statute should have run out 3 years ago at the absolute latest, but the priest sex abuse laws give the DA one year to prosecute after a victim reports the sexual abuse to the cops if the statute had run out and if a small list of other requirements are met, which have probably all been met in this case.

I'm guessing this woman decided to go to the cops after seeing this guy in the news. He would have probably gotten away with it if he had stayed with his family and kept a low profile for the rest of his life.

But now they have to prove it, isnt it done to he said she said?

[Brock]

Originally Posted by jAZ

This is the least concerned I've ever found myself when reading one of these stories.

I think it's because the guy is so non-defensive about it.

If you are going to do something like this, this sounds like the most well handled case I've ever heard about.

If it were my daughter, I'd be super pissed. But just reading the story, it sounds potentially legit. It would really depend on the mental/emotional state of the girl and how he treats her.

Yeah, this is really a romance for the ages.

[alnorth]

Originally Posted by Valiant

But now they have to prove it, isnt it done to he said she said?

Well sure, but that would have been the case if she was 18 and it happened last year.

Maybe she'll have some kind of love letter written by him, and if she gives a good convincing testimony in court, that could do it. Rapists also get convicted despite claiming it was consensual, it all depends on if the jury believes someone beyond a reasonable doubt.

[-King-]

Isn't 17 the age of consent in most States?

And I cant believe they arrested him 14 years later. That's pretty weak seeing as how the girl was 17.
Posted via Mobile Device

[Deberg_1990]

Originally Posted by Brock

Yeah, this is really a romance for the ages.

Indeed. Shes already left him.



http://www.modbee.com/2012/04/07/214...ex-enochs.html


MODESTO -- It's over, says Jordan Powers, the 18-year-old high school student who quit school to move in with her teacher.

The 41-year-old James Hooker was arrested by Modesto police Friday on charges of sexually assaulting another teenage girl 14 years ago.

"He called me from jail and yes, I told him that we're done," Powers told ABC News on Saturday morning. "I lost everything for this guy. I lost my senior year. I gave up all my friends at high school because they didn't agree with me."

Hooker posted $50,000 bail about 5 a.m. Saturday and was released from the Stanislaus County Jail, sheriff's officials said. He avoided reporters who spotted him riding a bicycle in a park and in his apartment complex.

Until February, Powers was a student at Enochs High School and Hooker was a business teacher and adviser to several campus clubs. The former couple has said their student-teacher relationship became romantic last fall, after Powers turned 18.

The Modesto City Schools District suspended Hooker on Feb. 3 during an initial investigation. He left his wife and three daughters two weeks later and moved into an apartment in Modesto. He moved Powers out of her mother's house and into the apartment days later. He resigned his teaching position the same day and remains unemployed.

Powers' mother, Tammie Powers, vigorously opposed the relationship, using her Facebook account to berate Hooker and accuse him of wooing her daughter before she turned 18. Tammie Powers said she discovered an estimated 8,000 text messages between the two dating to last summer.

Modesto police began their own investigation, even as Hooker and Jordan Powers became overnight media celebrities. After The Bee published a story about their relationship, they appeared on ABC's "Good Morning America" and the syndicated "Dr. Phil" show to defend themselves.

Tammie Powers kept up her social media campaign, appeared opposite them on "Dr. Phil" and worked with Modesto Assemblywoman Kristin Olsen on legislation that would make such student-teacher relationships a crime in California, even if the student is 18.

Hooker's arrest Friday had nothing to do with his involvement with Jordan Powers. Police say they have developed evidence that he was involved with a 17-year-old girl in 1998 while a teacher at Davis High School in Modesto. Police say the alleged victim was attending a local high school but was not a Davis student.

Hooker appeared briefly in court Friday afternoon. He is charged with one count of oral copulation with a minor.

"He told me that he met her online and he hung out with her just as friends and then he went to her house and she came out of the bathroom naked and he only touched her boobs and her legs," Jordan Powers told ABC. "He was freaked out so he left and went home. He said nothing else happened, but all of that was a lie."

Jordan Powers has always maintained that her romance with Hooker did not begin until after her 18th birthday in September. She said in late February he was getting a divorce but that they had no plans to marry. She was working to finish her classes through independent study and had been accepted to Modesto Junior College, hoping to become a nurse.

His confession to her from jail about a prior affair was devastating.

"He did not deny it. My heart dropped. I felt betrayed," she said. "I just have a gut feeling that there's other girls."

"How could he lie to me for all these months and look me in the eye and tell me he loves me?" she told ABC. "I don't know how someone could have such a cold heart."

Read more here: http://www.modbee.com/2012/04/07/214...#storylink=cpy

[ToxSocks]

Lol.

[Al Bundy]

It didn't last??? Color me shocked.