When a middle school teacher was arrested and sentenced for masturbating in a gym at Grand Valley State University, parents were somewhat concerned. However, a newspaper blogger at Michigan Live came to the teacher's defense.
August 22, 2008 - (Mind you, the writer is not being facetious.) He wrote,
Dennis James Graveldinger, 48, of Alto, a popular Grandville Middle School science teacher, was in the GVSU locker room after a workout and decided to take a shower. During that shower, Graveldinger found himself in a state of arousal. He returned to his locker and did what any normal person would do.And,
He began masturbating.
Now, while Graveldinger may not have done anything technically wrong other than not wait for the person standing next to him to leave before auto-eroticizing, other people see the situation a bit differently.He worries that the career of an otherwise good teacher could be at risk for one incident that has become blown out of proportion. And asks,
Parents of the children who go to the school Graveldinger teaches at have become concerned that somehow this act impairs his teaching ability or that he might be a pedophile, even though there were no objects to his arousal and that no minors should be in the GVSU locker room.
What do you think? Should he be fired, discipled or given a second chance?
Have you cast the same stone yourself?
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TT - Apparently you can't cast a stone in the writer's view because he thinks the teacher did "what any normal person" does, which is masturbate in a public place. The public place was the Grand Valley State University gym where a university student was present. In fact, next to him.
The writer asks, "Everything should be alright, right?" (Presumably an editor did not review the article because "all right" is always two words unless it's bad dialogue. Just as "all wrong" is two words. That's a mnemonic. Autoerotic is not hyphenated, by the way.) The newspaper blogger was referring to the reaction of parents to the arrest who objected to Graveldinger's continued presence in the classroom. In a middle school. With impressionable seventh graders.
Undoubtedly, the offense doesn't fall under those that mean automatic dismissal. And, thankfully, the teacher did not perform "autoeroticism" in the middle school, but amazingly, other districts and other writers might find such behavior unacceptable. Other districts might think that this teacher fails as a role model. And more earthy types might wonder why a teacher became so unaccountably aroused in the shower of a male locker room that it required instant, ah, intervention, so to speak.
We're not willing to take a poll on the subject, but we're probably safe in saying that most guys would probably prefer to "autoeroticize" in the shower rather than expose themselves (literally) and demonstrate publicly their lack of self-control to a perfect stranger. Frankly, we think parents who think the behavior sounds like a serious impulse control problem and that the inability to delay gratification should, at a minimum, call for psychological testing, aren't off the wall.
Luckily, Central Michigan University has a self-test online, Delaying Gratification Inventory in a Happiness Survey. Taking the 10-15 minute survey allows you to enter into a drawing for $100. You must be at least 18 years to participate in the survey.
Disturbingly, seventh graders have posted to the entry, one even providing her name.
As said befor mybe the student was to observent. I beleive this situation was stretched as far as it can go. He is a very popular teacher. And isnt the locker room ment for changing?We deleted the comment because of the self-identification. But, the very fact that seventh graders are discussing the merits of the case, rests ours.
