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Westford teacher charged with rape of student, 14
Lowell Sun ^ | September 17, 2005 | PETER WARD and JACK MINCH

Posted on 09/17/2005 10:09:57 AM PDT by SamAdams76

WESTFORD -- An eighth-grade science teacher at the Blanchard Middle School was indicted on charges she had sex with a 14-year-old Westford boy -- one of her students -- in the back seat of a car.

School Superintendent Stephen Foster said he plans to recommend that the teacher, Susan Clickner, 46, of Chicopee Row in Groton, be fired.

Foster suspended her with pay after police received and investigated a complaint on July 23 from the family of the alleged victim, who is now 15.

Police arrested Clickner without incident on Aug. 31 before the school year started and charged her with statutory rape in connection with the April 8 incident. Westford police referred all comment to the Middlesex District Attorney's Office.

Clickner pleaded not guilty to charges of statutory rape of a child at her arraignment in Ayer District Court on Sept. 1. She was released on $5,000 cash bail. She must return for arraignment in Superior Court. No date has been set.

“I will meet with her attorney next week with the intent of eliminating her employment,” Foster said.

Reached at home, Clickner asked that The Sun talk to her lawyer but didn't provide the attorney's name.

“I'm not going to talk to you,” she said.

Foster said the School Department cooperated fully with police.

He and a spokeswoman for the district attorney's office said the alleged incident didn't occur on school grounds.

Foster said he interviewed and hired Clickner and also conducted a criminal background check on her.

“If we had sensed anything of this nature, sensed any concern, we wouldn't have hired her,” Foster said.

Clickner taught at the 600-student Blanchard school about a year and a half.

“The unfortunate part of this is that this is such a fine school district. If the charge is correct, it's a serious breach of trust at the highest levels, and it serves to undermine the professionalism, dedication and integrity of Westford teachers,” Foster said. “Right now my primary concern is to ensure that students in that grade are taught by a qualified teacher, to ensure a teacher who can fill the need of those students.”

Parents at a youth soccer game for elementary-aged children near the school last night were surprised by the charges.

A couple of parents, speaking on condition they not be identified, were also concerned that the school had not told residents and parents of the allegations. Such charges erode public trust, they said.

“These are not good times,” said the mother of a 5- and 11-year-old. “Who can you trust anymore? You send your kids to school and think they're safe, but where are they safe now?”

Bob Laliberte said there can be a tendency to disregard misconduct charges when they involve a female perpetrator, but that's wrong.

“I think sometimes there's a dual standard when it's a woman and a boy, but when this age is concerned, there shouldn't be a dual standard -- it's equally wrong,” he said.

After suspending Clickner, Foster said he hired a retired science teacher and assigned an elementary science coordinator to instruct eighth-grade science students at Blanchard. Because of the retired teacher, Foster said he was required to seek a waiver demonstrating a hardship in finding qualified science teachers to fill vacant positions.

This is the second time in recent years that a local schoolteacher has been accused of sexually assaulting one of her male students.

In August 2004, Chelmsford teacher Michelle Amundson pleaded guilty to rape of a child and five counts of indecent assault and battery on a person under 14 involving her 12-year-old student.

The 32-year-old McCarthy Middle School teacher was sentenced to three to five years in state prison followed by lifetime community parole. Her parole condition may be stripped after a ruling by the state's highest court this week.

Amundson, who was married to a Chelmsford firefighter and had no children, began the relationship with the sixth-grade student during the 2002-03 school year.

She had a sexual relationship with the boy from January to April of 2003, that began with sending him suggestive e-mails. It progressed to kissing and fondling in the school basement and escalated to the same sexual behavior in Amundson's house, prosecutors said.

And former Tyngsboro High special-needs teacher Karen Cross was convicted after a jury trial in 1991 of having sex with a student at her home. The boy's testimony and love letters they shared were key evidence at the time. She was sentenced to one year in jail, but Judge Robert Barton later reduced her sentence to six months.


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To: WV Mountain Mama

My son will be 18 in a week. I remember how he acted. He was a total pest, in other words...normal. I'm sure he had the hots for girls his own age, but a teacher?

I'm starting to wonder if this just isn't a copycat phenomenon. There have been a couple of young female teachers involved with 16-17 yr old boys, and I can believe that just a little more.


41 posted on 09/17/2005 1:59:05 PM PDT by TheSpottedOwl ("President Bush, start building that wall"!)
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To: TheSpottedOwl
Based on my fifty-plus-year-old and now-fading memory, fourteen-to-eighteen-year-old boys can have the "hots" for most any reasonably good looking female. The "alleged victim" was seduced. The seductress used poor judgment in mixing work and pleasure. Perhaps the victim used poor judgment in "kissing and telling".

The differing ethic between girls and boys having sex with older partners is, I believe, rooted in the tendency for males to be satisfied with "sex", whereas females are more likely to seek a "stable" relationship, as it's more conducive to childrearing. Of course, modern Socialist Government programs have eroded the need for a stable relationship for childrearing, whilst simultaneously reinforcing the tendency for males to be "satisfied with sex".

Is the seduction of teenage boys by older women teachers a "socialist" thing, i.e., exacerbated by socialism?
42 posted on 09/17/2005 4:48:33 PM PDT by Woodworker
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To: wolfcreek

We have to see a picture to know whether she really raped him or not.


43 posted on 09/17/2005 6:23:50 PM PDT by johnb838 (Logic and reason are tools of the white oppressor.)
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To: x

When I was young I wasn't generally interested in women that were a lot older than me. I mean, you know, like in her (gasp) thirties. For me, one of the joys of getting older has been finding that I still find all the younger ones attractive, but older women become progressively more attractive as well... at least some of them. I don't mean ones that have let themselves go of course.

As for me, I still look like I did when I was 20 and I'm 46.


44 posted on 09/17/2005 6:27:13 PM PDT by johnb838 (Logic and reason are tools of the white oppressor.)
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To: oldfart

I've heard babies don't crawl anymore. They just get up and walk. I wonder if that's in anyway related. Also that puberty gets earlier and earlier. I figured it was just exposure to sexual themes earlier and earlier.


45 posted on 09/17/2005 6:30:02 PM PDT by johnb838 (Logic and reason are tools of the white oppressor.)
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To: thoughtomator

I have a family member that was molested for several years by a school teacher. It was great then, however as an adult, he has never been able to properly adjust to society. Very sad situation.


46 posted on 09/17/2005 6:37:24 PM PDT by cynicom
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To: SamAdams76

46? I will with-hold my analysis till the pic turns up. I have met some hot 46+ year olds.


47 posted on 09/17/2005 6:39:00 PM PDT by isom35
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To: TheSpottedOwl
What the hell is wrong with these women? How could you find a boy sexually attractive?

Simple, it's called 'perversion!' And perversion is seeking the excitement of a fantasy that is out of the ordinary.

Sad thing about this is that jokes are made about the polarity of this perversion but if it were the opposite polarity the pervert would be put on a list that would nearly ban him from humanity! Both are equally wrong!

48 posted on 09/17/2005 6:41:43 PM PDT by eeriegeno
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To: SamAdams76

OMG!!!! THAT'S MY HOMETOWN!!!!!


49 posted on 09/17/2005 6:44:14 PM PDT by Hoodlum91 (I Remember)
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To: oldfart

Chasing boys is one thing. Chasing men is absolutely disgusting. Dont know if it is the diet or what. Seems strange. But....


50 posted on 09/17/2005 8:29:56 PM PDT by cubreporter (I trust Rush. He has done good more for our country than anyone will know. He's a man of honor.)
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To: DTogo

oh kids DO look different than we did. Heaven's...no way did I look like they do today and there is NO WAY I would have been allowed to dress the way they do.


51 posted on 09/17/2005 8:30:45 PM PDT by cubreporter (I trust Rush. He has done good more for our country than anyone will know. He's a man of honor.)
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