Move over Doug Hutchinson, you've got company. From Yahoo News:
"Last year, Jordan Powers was just another student from Mr. Hooker's class. Now she's his live-in girlfriend.
James Hooker -- the 41-year-old married father who left his wife and kids for his 18-year-old-student -- might be the worst teacher ever. Last week, he resigned from his job at Enochs High School in Modesto, California over the scandal that's shaken up a community and pit one mom on a crusade to save her daughter from a man she calls a "master manipulator."
Worse teacher ever? I think Mary Kay Latourneau, Debra LaFave, and Mark Berndt have James Hooker beat.
Manipulator? Not completely sold on that. Jordan is a legal adult who chose to move in with him. In addition, this is consistent behavior with daughters from single mother households from a sexually active standpoint. Early bloomer.
As far as James Hooker goes, he's breaking a covenant with his wife and family. That has consequences, like a potentially bitter divorce. This gets better:
"Jordan met her teacher as a freshman, but both maintain nothing physical happened until she turned 18 this past September. Hooker claims he saw Powers as "just a student" and had no romantic feelings toward her at first, but when her most recent birthday came around, things changed.
They changed so much, in fact, that Hooker, left his wife and three kids (one of them a 17-year-old Enochs high school student as well) so that he could move in with Jordan.
If this all sounds suspicious to you, imagine how Tammie Powers, Jordan's mom, feels. She's launched an official police investigation to find out if Hooker's relationship with her daughter began before Jordan was of legal age. Tammie is convinced it did, citing a photo of her daughter on Hooker's lap and text messages, emails and phone records exchanged between the couple that predate her daughter's 18th birthday.
"That's pursuit, in my opinion, with some type of intent," she told ABC News 10 in California."
Haven't seen the content of the texts and emails, but the phone records and photo are circumstantial.
"Hooker denies Tammie's claims and is confident the investigation will turn up nothing. He blames the "stigma of the teacher-student relationship" for the public backlash. But Hooker's former boss, Modesto City Schools Supt. Pam Able, doesn't agree.
Even if their relationship doesn't break any laws, Able says she "considers student-teacher dating relationships to be not only unprofessional, but immoral." She also added in an email to the Modesto Bee, that Hooker's relationship has become a "source of great concern for staff, students and parents."
Ms. Able, since you believe student-teacher dating relationships are unprofessional and immoral, can you tell that to all the college profs and TA's (not to mention other teachers at the HS level as regular readers of this blog know)? This is a pretty common occurrence.
Still, Hooker claims he has no regrets. In an interview with Good Morning America, he shut down Tammie's accusations as a "pack of lies" and said of his new love, "we really do want to have a future together."
So we can pretty safely say that James Hooker won't be on Tammie Powers' Christmas card list any year soon. Meanwhile, Tammie Powers has gone to great lengths in her "crusade" against James Hooker:
"Desperate for her child, Tammie has turned her own Facebook page into a "most wanted" profile for Hooker. She's plastered his photo all over her wall warning neighbors about the man she calls an "arrogant pig". She's also made her wallpaper a photo of a prison cell, sending a message to Hooker should he dare visit her site.
Since the story has been picked up by national press, she's been flooded with messages of support from strangers. Tonight, she'll be taking her crusade against Hooker to Nancy Grace. "Nancy's always been a victims advocate and fights for justice," Tammie wrote on Facebook. "That's the goal here, justice."
Justice for whom exactly?? Certainly not Jordan Powers.
Background Intel:
Yahoo News: Teacher Leaves Wife, Kids for High School Student
Chateau Heartiste: Alpha Male Of The Month
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