Sheriff's deputy dismissed for sex with 17 year old girl - no charges filed

A former sheriff’s deputy who had sexual contact with a girl while she turned 18 will not face criminal charges. Bryce Adams, who worked at Newton High School in Troy, OH, resigned after 15 years as a sheriff’s deputy on April 24.

Allegations were made to the sheriff's department in April by a former student, now 20 years old. Sheriff Charles Cox said Adams was accused of having a sexual relationship with the girl, then 17, in October 2005 on Newton school property.

The investigation was turned over to the Montgomery County Sheriff's Office and Shelby County Prosecutor Ralph Bauer acted as special prosecutor.

Bauer said the girl had graduated from Newton High School and was 17 at the time of what he termed "the first occasion." She was 18 on the second occasion, Bauer wrote.

Bauer found that the relationship was "inappropriate, but does not rise to the level of criminal activity under any of the sections of the Ohio Revised Code."

Adams’ lawyer Jose Lopes stated that while unaware of the findings, "Bryce has paid a very steep penalty for his indiscretion."

He also stated a rhetorical question about his clients behavior. "Is it inappropriate? Does it violate the sheriff's office policies and procedures? Yes. That's why it cost him his job."

Ohio’s AOC is 16, and teachers who go with their students (or for that matter, any student in the same school as they work in) can be charged with sexual battery, even when the victim is over 16 (or for that matter, 18). Here are 2 cases where teachers have been convicted for sex with over the AOC students. Perhaps laws covering school employees need to be expanded to cover school resource officers.

Sexual assault normalized in high schools

Ontario (Canada) school officials are alarmed that a growing number of schoolgirls see sexual harassment and even sexual assault as normal.

During a keynote address to the annual Safe Schools Conference in Toronto, Gerry Connelly said a young girl will see somebody being pushed against a locker, or touched inappropriately, and apparently shrug it off.Connelly told the crowd, girls think "it's just the way it is."

A recent study by the Center for Addiction and Mental Health finds they're not alone.

Almost half of female high school students in Southwestern Ontario were subjected to sexual comments or gestures from classmates. The study also found that one-third had been touched in a sexual manner in school.

The Ministry of Education says a team of experts will examine the causes of these problems.

According to the AAUW's 2001 study of sexual harassment in schools, 83% of girls and 79% of boys in geades 8 through 11 have been harassed sexualy at school.

A recent University of Virginia study stated that one in six women who go there experienced rape, and when other forms of unwanted sexual conduct is tallied, the number of female victims is over one in three.

According to a prominent author dealing with student victims, "Sexual harassment is not about flirting, humor, raging hormones, or horseplay. It is about power and the harasser's need to exert it over a victim." (Shoop, Sexual Exploitation In Schools, p. 11)

Sexual coercion, sexual assault, rape and domestic abuse is also about the same thing that sexual harassment is about - power and control over a victim.