Students Exposed to Underage Sexual Behavior, Sexual Content in Media, and Social Media Outlets

The purpose of this paper is to discuss a principal’s practical experience in his middle school regarding his observations and opinions of his student population. The focus of the population is middle school students (children) who have been exposed and/or involved in underage sexual behavior, and/or students exposed to sexual content in the media and social media outlets. The results of this interview are compared to our theoretical learning from our textbook.

After attending UCLA and the University of Nairobi in Kenya, Irvine Unified School District (IUSD) South Lake Middle School Principal Bruce Baron received his Bachelor’s degree from UCI. Mr. Baron began his career in the seventies with the National Teacher Corps program, and subsequently taught at the elementary, middle, and high school level, and has been a principal at the elementary and middle school level of public institutions. His career focus has been primarily in improving the quality of schools in low-socioeconomic status (SES) neighborhoods, with a focus on improving learning and teaching, creating an information-rich environment at schools, the implementation of a learning community, continuous professional development of teachers, the encouraged involvement of parents, and seeking increased funding and resources. Aside from working at the school site level, he has been actively engaged in multicultural education and acting as a consultant to address and ameliorate inter-ethnic tensions that exist at secondary schools. His work has been recognized by the Orange County Human Relations Commission. He currently also teaches social science and history to UCI Department of Education graduate students. It is because of his extensive background and outstanding ...

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...of hopelessness. While Mr. Baron did state that this specific population we were discussing only makes up about 10% of his students, the 10% is still a much higher figure than I anticipated. I found Mr. Baron to be extremely empathetic to the lives of his students and their families, and quite aware of the statistics of sexual offending by minors. He was also very familiar with his duties and responsibilities to the offenders and the victims, and when he was to defer.

He exercised the utmost professionalism during our interview, and was diligent to answer every one of my questions until I had exhausted my time. I was very fortunate to be given the opportunity to share some of his valuable time.

References

Terry, K. J. (2013). Sexual offenses and offenders: Theory, practice and policy. (2nd ed., pp. 19, 125, 128-132, 152). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.