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Women’s Swimming
Broadway stagehands on strike
PAGE 15
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Thursday, Nov. 15, 2007
TIHE LOQUITUR YOU SPEAK, WE LISTEN
Radnor, Pa.
CABRINI COLLEGE
50 Vol XLIX, Issue 11
www.theloquitur.com
Sexual abuse among educators JILLIAN SMITH PERSPECTIVES EDITOR JKS724@CABRINI.EDU MEGAN PELLEGRINO COPY EDITOR/WEB EDITOR MRP727@CABRINI.EDU
Pennsylvania: A middle school teacher confesses his love for one of his female students so that he may sexually abuse her. Michigan: A teacher goes to prison after filming himself molesting a boy. The teacher had already lost his license in another state, making this not his first sexual offence. Nebraska: A 25-year-old
teacher abuses, kidnaps and flees across the border to Mexico with a 13-year-old student. An Associated Press investigation found more than 2,500 cases over five years where educators were punished for sexually abusing students. In Pennsylvania alone, the number of sexual offenders to date, including, but not limited to educators, is 9,373. “The definition for sexual assault for the purpose of teachers is different than what sexual assault would be if you were working at another job,” Dr. Dawn Middleton, chairperson of the education department, told Lo-
quitur in an interview. “Teachers are held to very high standards.”
“Teachers don’t always quite understand the significance of their actions...You are now being seen in a light that is different from anywhere that you have ever been seen in before.” - Dr. Dawn Middleton
“A teacher has a responsibility to be respectful for
someone else’s personal space, especially children,” junior elementary early childhood education major Shannon Federici said. According to the AP, “There are three million public school teachers nationwide, most devoted to their work. Yet the number of abusive educators, nearly three for every school day, speaks to a much larger problem in a system that is stacked against victims.” On the pre-school level, putting an arm around a child for comfort or a hand over a child’s hand to stop fidgeting is very much acceptable. It is used as a classroom management technique. However, those same actions
past third or fourth grade, particularly with opposite sex teacher and student, can be construed as sexual assault, since the action is usually unwanted, Middleton said. In the state of Pennsylvania, even a tenured teacher may be fired for what is called moral turpitude. If a teacher does anything illegal, unethical or immoral at any time, under the moral turpitude clause, it may be grounds for dismissal. In some cases, teaching certificates can be revoked. Pennsylvania has a no-tolerance law for any actions that may be consid-
SEXUAL ABUSE, page 3
Research yields results
ASHLEY COOK/NEWS EDITOR
Senior biology and Spanish major Allison Superneau fills the DNA sequencer with the gel used in the research that is currently being conducted at Cabrini.
ASHLEY COOK NEWS EDITOR AAC722@CABRINI.EDU
“It’s a very exciting, unexpected discovery,” Dr. David Dunbar, associate professor of biology, said. “Experiments take unexpected twists and turns, it’s not just a cook-book procedure. Sometimes the results are what we want and other times, not. But hey, that’s science.”
Fortunately enough, Allison Superneau, senior biology and Spanish major, and Ashley Mayer, senior biology and philosophy major, after years of research have recently discovered a gene called RTF1 that is over-expressed in mice with abnormal mammorary gland development using a differential gene expression technique. Their studies have shown it could potentially function in the mammary gland development.
“Were excited,” Superneau said. “What is known, not a whole lot, it is preliminary. We did identify a gene that is much brighter than others, and by isolating it, we can now verify it through our real time PCR machine.” “It’s a very sophisticated project,” David Dunbar said. “So it takes time.” Collaborating with Cabrini, Penn State Berks has been helpful in the research; each team of science major’s work together using each other’s resources, machines and professors. Dr. Maureen Dunbar, associate professor of biology at Penn State Berks, said the main focus of the research is to examine the effects of estrogen on regulating the growth of breast cell during puberty. Estrogen is the primary hormone that is responsible for causing the development and growth of the breast during adolescence in animals, including mice and humans, Maureen Dunbar said. “Although estrogen is a natural hormone, several previous studies have indicated hat it can also be carcinogenic. What Allison and Ashley are doing is important because it will help to understand more fully how estrogen may lead to cancer,” Dunbar said. Superneau and Mayer have been working on this project for over two years. By using RNA from transgenic mice (those that have deformities in their mammary glands) sent to Cabrini from Penn State Berks laboratory, Superneau and Mayer identified a
RESEARCH, page 3
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JILLIAN SMITH/PERSPECTIVES EDITOR
Students gathered at Cabrini Day on Nov. 13 in the Dixon Center. Students were separated according to their socioeconomic status. Green was for the upper class while blue was for the middle class and red was for the lower class.
JILLIAN SMITH/PERSPECTIVES EDITOR