Tacoma teacher accused of having sex with 12-year-old boy fired
TACOMA, Wash. -- A sixth grade math and science teacher at Tacoma's Gray Middle School accused of having sex with a 12-year-old boy in her class has been fired, Tacoma School District officials said.
Keshia Shaw, 33, has 10 days to appeal the firing, district spokesman Dan Voelpel said.
Shaw faces five counts of second-degree rape stemming from the alleged incidents that began in 2007 and spanned nearly two years, prosecutors said. She has pleaded not guilty.
Prosecutor say the incidents began at the end of the victim's sixth grade year when he had to retake a test in Shaw's classroom. During the test, the victim noticed Shaw wasn't wearing underwear under her dress, prosecutors wrote in court documents. Shaw noticed him looking and asked if he was turned on, then took the victim to a nearby room where they had sex, detectives said.
Detectives said the two had sex again twice more over the following two months, including one instance where Shaw gave the victim a ride home and they had sex in his bedroom while his mother was at work.
The victim transferred schools, but ended up running into Shaw at the school nearly two years later while visiting friends. After having sex again, she drove him to a bank and paid him $80, then they had one more sexual encounter shortly after, prosecutors said.
The victim just recently reported the incidents to his mother and a family friend in May after he went to church and heard a sermon discussing molestation. The friend of the family then contacted Child Protective Services.
Voelpel says when once the criminal allegations surfaced, the district conducted its own investigation into Shaw and found other instances of inappropriate behavior.
Shaw is being held on $75,000 bail as she awaits her trial to begin on Aug. 30. If convicted, she could face life in prison.
Shaw's attorney said the allegations are "untrue."
Keshia Shaw, 33, has 10 days to appeal the firing, district spokesman Dan Voelpel said.
Shaw faces five counts of second-degree rape stemming from the alleged incidents that began in 2007 and spanned nearly two years, prosecutors said. She has pleaded not guilty.
Prosecutor say the incidents began at the end of the victim's sixth grade year when he had to retake a test in Shaw's classroom. During the test, the victim noticed Shaw wasn't wearing underwear under her dress, prosecutors wrote in court documents. Shaw noticed him looking and asked if he was turned on, then took the victim to a nearby room where they had sex, detectives said.
Detectives said the two had sex again twice more over the following two months, including one instance where Shaw gave the victim a ride home and they had sex in his bedroom while his mother was at work.
The victim transferred schools, but ended up running into Shaw at the school nearly two years later while visiting friends. After having sex again, she drove him to a bank and paid him $80, then they had one more sexual encounter shortly after, prosecutors said.
The victim just recently reported the incidents to his mother and a family friend in May after he went to church and heard a sermon discussing molestation. The friend of the family then contacted Child Protective Services.
Voelpel says when once the criminal allegations surfaced, the district conducted its own investigation into Shaw and found other instances of inappropriate behavior.
Shaw is being held on $75,000 bail as she awaits her trial to begin on Aug. 30. If convicted, she could face life in prison.
Shaw's attorney said the allegations are "untrue."
Are they going to extort some money from the school district? It was inappropriate, sure, but life in prison? Remember "The Graduate"? When I was a teen, a few times older women would make advances and it was totally in my control to accept or refuse. The way the story reads, it sounds the young man was consenting. Don't call him a victim.
When I was 12 I would check out the girl across the aisle, but the teacher? Yuck!
That's not Dermatosis-Papulosa-Nigra. That's freckles. She's got some Irish in her bloodline.
Holy Dermatosis-Papulosa-Nigra, Batman!
 @Saving Grace are you related to this victim?? Your posts are so angry and you have such a one sided angry view towards everyone with an opinion. That is what this place is for...an open opinion!
Â
 While I agree that this is horrible and awful situation for anyone Male or felmale victim I have a hard time beliving the story from the facts given by the media. I know there must be things left out and I know that this happens and especially when it is done by a "in power" female it goes undeted or worse ignored. I hope that way it gets sorted out and they both get the help they need to get through this. If it is untrue her life here is ruined and he will have a lot of explaining and hopefully serious punishment I have heard way to much latley about kids thinking this is funny to get someone back in a serious way for something petty, ie bad grades a phone call to the house, etc. If it is true I hope that it is a serious penatly for her and he gets the counsling support that he needs to know that this is not normal behaviour and shouldn't be tolerated and it should only be done in the right safe enviornment.Â
If the allegations are true. I guess we'll find out when the case goes to trial.
If she was 8/10 or better I'd let it slide.
Later today, I will be giving a training on law and ethics to about 35 helping professionals. I have been in the helping profession for over 38 years. This is a case of a person with power and influence is accused of using that power and influence to meet her own sexual needs. In my opinion, the person with the power is ALWAYS responsible for such situations and should always use their power in the best interests of the persons they serve. If guilty, and in most cases like this the person is, then she violated the trust of her position for her own sexual gratification and deserves the consequences. If there are instances of men doing the same thing, getting away with it suggesting a gender bias, I absolutely believe each person who violates the trust placed in them whether it be a teacher, counselor, supervisor, law enforcement officer, priest, or president of the United States should be held accountable.
Fired? With an appeal? Give me a break! Where's the arrest and jail ala Mary K Letourneau? Why the favoritism?
 @Alikelystorey Did you even bother reading the story?  She is in custody awaiting trial.
Why is it that we have tons upon tons of male sex offenders who seem to get away with only a slap on the wrist and the female gets punished more severely?Â
@TrueBlack Do females really get punished more severely than male sex offenders TrueBlack? Where is the evidence to support your claim?
Â
Female Sex Offenders Protected by the Criminal Justice System
Â
Los Angeles, CA (May 30, 2012) Female sex offenders receive lighter sentences for the same crimes than males says a study recently published in Feminist Criminology, a SAGE journal and the official journal of the Division on Women and Crime of the American Society of Criminology.
Â
Embry and Lyons looked at the sentences that male and female sex offenders received for specific sex offenses and found that even after the implementation of sentencing guidelines to ensure equality in sentencing, on average male sentences were between 6% and 31% longer than female sentences for the same or similar crimes.
Â
"It appears as if the criminal justice system actually treats women more leniently than men," wrote Randa Embry and Phillip M. Lyons, Jr., authors of the study. The researchers explained this disparity by discussing the American idea that "women are weaker and, therefore, must be protected at all times regardless of their status as victims or offenders."
Â
Embry and Lyons analyzed data from the U.S. Department of Justice's National Corrections Reporting Program from the years 1994 to 2004. Sex offenses included rape, statutory rape, sexual assault, child sexual assault, and forcible sodomy.
Â
"This leads to the supposition that women, regardless of the departure from social and gender norms committed in concurrence with the offense for which they are being sentenced, continue to be viewed as individuals who should be protected by the justice system," wrote the researchers. "Obviously, as a social institution, the criminal justice system is reluctant to break those social norms and gender roles in response to atypical gendered behavior."
Â
Find out more by reading the article, "Sex-Based Sentencing: Sentencing Discrepancies between Male and Female Sex Offenders," in Feminist Criminology.
 @TrueBlack Umm, have you looked at your local sex offender registry lately? There's like one woman on there for every 100 men. You can't tell me that the crime is that lopsided. The big reason they are going after her is because she's a teacher (I'm guessing).
 @Magic 8 Ball no, because she is an adult and the victim is a 12 year old BOY, a child by legal standards, who is not emotionally developed to make decisions about his own well being.
@Saving Grace @Magic 8 Ball  When I was 12 I was like a puppy, had this thing and wantd to use it. Society made me wait until later in life. But I don't think the boy was harmed too bad. I wouldn't want to waste a ton of resources locking her up when there is some meth head out getting the light sentence after beating his girlfriend.
 @TrueBlack This is a woman who is teaching children. Little kids. If she actually had sex with a student I would expect her to be treated more severely than this. This is someone who you put trust into every single day to watch over your child and to teach your child. I'm disappointed and disgusted with the poor choices she made in thinking a 12 year olds mind is fully developed for sexual activity. I mean for christ sakes, shes a teacher, she should know their mind isn't to the full compatibility as hers until they're in there 20s.
HannaJo: granted, she is.  I'm not objecting to the fact that the teacher deserves just punishment.  I just don't understand why some like her get life and others who also should be put away for good get to cycle in and out of jail only to rape/molest hundreds more each time they get out. Our laws need to change, big time.
 @TrueBlack Please pass that crack pipe along. you've clearly had enough.
 @Chad Saint Badnrad Sounds like you've had more than your share, since you don't even know how to answer the question.
what's wrong with these students they know how to say no he was 12 years old, now i'm not saying the teacher should get away with this not by a long shot. But the student took her to his mom's house and took $80 dollars from her he was all the way into it. he got guilt and wanted to tell some one while he was having fun he did not want to tell anyone. these kids are just as guilty as the teachers.
 @ratfat28 I want to know, what part of this is different from a male teacher molesting a female student in your mind? (i'm going to be nice and assume you would see that situation as the horrible crime it is, if im wrong, please turn yourself into to your local police station.)
Â
Is is the fact that its not a girl being victimized or is it the fact that its not a man doing the victimization?
Â
Well the answer here is easy, its both. What is happening is you have a biological instinct to protect women, even from the punishment of their own actions. So you see the teacher here as the victim, because you are biologically programmed to. But as humans, we separate ourselves from other animals by our ability to transcend our biological programming. and that is what you must do. Look past the gendered world view you were born with. and ask yourself, how would you react if you were never told either gender.
Â
Unlike you, i see people the same regardless of their gender. what happened to him was bad, what she did was bad.
Â
Look at the following molestation situations:
Â
male adult, female victim
male adult, male victim
female adult, female victim
female adult, male victim.
Â
and when you see all four situations the same, you can call yourself human.
 @ratfat28 With a mentality like that I'd be surprised to not find you on a sex offender registry some day. A 12 year old is not old enough to give consent...especially to a teacher in authority. Without consent, it's rape, plain and simple. You don't get that?
What is wrong with these teachers? Â What would possibly be attractive about a 12 year old boy?!
 @JusticeSeeker Be careful to stereotype teachers. Your question should be, "What is wrong with adults who are attracted to children?" Your question can make people focus on one group of pedophiles versus ALL pedophiles from different walks of life. Examples: priests, police officers, lawyers, doctors, garbage collectors, politicians, etc.
@Koawoodplayer @JusticeSeeker
And I repeat Justice Seeker, what is with these teachers? There are so many of them that we must be just scratching the surface.Â
@oldster70 You are so right @oldster70! I must add that this child's rape will adersely affect him for the rest of his life. Sexual Offender Treatment Therapists know that there are many more females that are offenders due to the fact they have more unquestioned, unobserved contact with children than male offenders. Society doesn't want to hear it because it's considered taboo to talk about it.
 @wordorigin Well said.
 @oldster70  @Koawoodplayer And I repeat Koawoodplayer: What is wrong with adults who are attracted to children?  You may think we're "scratching the surface," but then, the same has been said of the Catholic church.  For every teacher who is caught sexually abusing a child, there are hundreds more who change lives by educating and enriching our children.  Please do not resort to broad generalizations in an effort to explain the behavior of one abusive individual.
"The victim went to church and heard a sermon discussing molestation." Well well, perhaps we should teach kids about molestation in sex-ed, WHILE they are force fed homosexuality and condom application. "..the district conducted its own investigation into Shaw and found other instances of inappropriate behavior."uh huh....she has a history. bet the union just had her transferred.
 @Saving Grace Wrong. If the district investigated this teacher to find other instances of inappropriate behavior, it wasn't her UNION that protected her, but perhaps an inattentive administrator. Unions just give her due process rights. So, while you are trying to bash unions, focus on the real issue....inattentive administrators OR it could be she just wasn't caught by anyone before this incident.
 @Koawoodplayer lets see the details of her past history. if at another school, how is it no one at her new school knew about it? Â
>
this happened to a teacher in Enumclaw a few years back. the teacher had issues with minor students in a previous district and instead of forcing this perv to get help they just transferred him. I don't care who's fault it is, the f'n WEA union own the schools, koa. The other idiocy is that the state, or the districts, demand all parents who wish to volunteer undergo a background check thru the WSP....if this psycho transferred in from another district, they should have done a background check, but I suppose there is a good explanation as to why union members are exempt...right? always seems to be a double standard. Â
 @Koawoodplayer Obviously someone looked the other way, Koa, because this teacher has a history, yet still has a job in a school in the same union. You can't make an good excuse for that. I think it's too bad that people feel they NEED a union to keep a job.
 @Saving Grace And you know this about unions, because??? Were you a union member? I know the media has painted a misinterpretation of how unions work. I used to believe that rhetoric, until I took the time to investigate how unions work. How many times have employees for any corporation, small business, city or state job, etc been falsely accused by an employer and then shown the door? Many! My friend who works in a red state ("right to work") was fired unfairly. She looked into legal services and they told her she had no due process rights. If she belonged to a union, she would have those rights. Those rights keep employers accountable and ensure the Seven Tests of Just Cause are followed. If an employer can say "yes" to all seven tests, then the employee can be terminated. One test asks, "Was there a fair investigation?" That means, did the employer truly question all parties involved or did they only question those who would give an answer that would be biased resulting in an unlawful termination. I know many employees in the retail business who were unfairly terminated when I was a clerk at a major department store. It was the whim of the employer (ie. did not like employee's political stance on issues, or a rumor was said about accused employee that was unfair, etc) that caused certain employees to be fired. And what you don't know Saving Grace, is many teacher contracts have language in place where a teacher CAN be fired if the administrator does the paperwork and investigations fairly. I will never forgo my due process rights as an employee just b/c there are people who think the minute an employer doesn't like an employee, they should then be fired. Heaven help someone who is falsely accused of misconduct or something else.
 @Koawoodplayer While I don't like it when children are taken advantage of, someone was clearly not paying attention to the RED FLAGS that were going up. The point of "saving grace" is this: the actions/behaviors were exposed through a sermon. Now the healing can begin for both people.
Â
Â
@Saving Grace Love your post! Thank you!
if they require background checks on parents who wish to volunteer for one day ....it's time for our legislature to demand school districts give ALL staff a psych eval.Â
@Saving Grace I agree but neva happen.
 @Patriot  @Saving the boys parents should sue the school, the WEA and the union.
 @Koawoodplayer think about this. Does the union care more about you, or your dues?Â
 @Saving Grace Boy, you are a piece of work. Sue the union? Bhahaha. It's the duty and responsibility of the school district to do the investigations and background check. Again, it sounds like you are generalizing, stereotyping, and just have an overall chip on your shoulder about unions. Give it a rest. If you go after the wrong groups or people, you only perpetuate the problem of pedophiles going undetected.
She shouldn't have been fired. The school district should have given her the Mary K Latourneau teacher of the year award!
 @hi61izq So you believe the school is there to encourage teachers to have sex with children? I don't even know how to respond to that.
Whether she did it or not, she should still have her day in court and be tried and a verdict issued before any decision is rendered regarding her job. There is still the possibility that the kid is lying. Remember the "runaway bride" back in 2005? Claimed she was abducted and a manhunt was launched to find her. Came to be that she ran away and made the whole story up because she was afraid to get married.
 @northwestsurfer I can agree with that as long you feel that she should be put on leave to protect the kids while figuring out whether or not she is guilty.
The boy isn't a victim. Â He went willingly, he knew what was going on and repeated the act.
Should she be fired? Â Absolutely. Â Should she be held accountable? Â ABSOLUTELY.
Should the kid be called "Victim"? Â HELL NO.
 @TJM Uh, he's a KID, and she was a teacher. He was likely scared to say no for fear of getting in trouble!
 @TJM So then the 10 yr old kid from a broken home that Jerry Sandusky was raping in a Penn State shower wasn't a victim if he didn't fight the rapist? So then almost NONE of child rape victims are actually victims, because they commonly don't physically resist. Especially after some significant period of predatory grooming, like maybe a teacher that predates on kids.
and he took her to his mom's house so he knew what he was doing.
 @TJM that's BS. he's a minor child easily manipulated by the adult , who should know better.
 @Saving Grace HE REPEATED THE BEHAVIOR!  MORE THAN ONCE!
Â
HE KNEW what was happening.
 @Robinsnest Just read your last post and fully agree (sorry it was buried in the threads). Yes this woman is wrong and society needs to take some accountability too if they confuse children like this.
 @Robinsnest What is your point with your last post? The fact that children are experimenting with sex at a younger age doesn't excuse adults from molesting them. Especially if the adults around them are the ones confusing them about what sex is in the first place.
Â
As for your first post, it probably isn't a family upbringing that gets childre in general confused. It is all the nonsense he saw on TV and in the media. But of course that is irrelevant to the discussion of an adult having sex with a child. That child you referred to isn't more grown up. They are just confused by some messages they shouldn't be exposed to. Again, that doesn't excuse an adult abusing him (assuming his allegations are accurate).
 @Saving Grace Yes, my first post was "hypothetical" as stated in first sentence and I never stated that one was true, however when I replied to my original post with the story about the two young boys that was entirely true. And you are correct about nothing can excuse this Teachers actions. What she did was vile and she should also lose her Teaching credentials and register as a sex offender. I for the life of me cannot understand how adults can do this sort of thing, but then again I don't want to understand. But we cannot ignore that there is a certain culture out there that is producing very sexualized children at such young ages. The family life of this boy also needs to be looked at since clearly he did not think this was anything wrong for 2 years. He even went back to the school on his own volition so clearly he was not afraid of this woman.
Unfortunately, my hypothetical question may actually be happening in many households.
 @Robinsnest when you start a post with "Hypothetical scenario" one is inclined to think that is fiction. >
 nothing you say excuses this teachers actions.
 @Saving Grace Your refusal to see what is happening is dangerous. And by the way, this is not fiction. I was so shocked when I heard these boys talking that I mentioned it to the store employee that was at the door as I walked in. She says she sees those women and those boys there often and also have heard them say some very disturbing things.
 @Robinsnest your fiction is irrelevant here.
 @Saving Grace Last month I was taking my daughter and her friend out shopping. As they walked into a store at an outlet mall I was getting out of the car I saw and heard 2 little boys talking. One boy was maybe 6 years old at most and the other was maybe 9. I look at and hear the 6 year old say to the older boy "wanna know how to get a girl to come up on ya? You look at them like this." And he proceeded with a very crude "come on over here baby" look on his face with his head bobbing back and forth. It was so disgusting to see this and I look around to see if their parents are around. Sure enough I see a couple of women(dressed like hookers) walk up to them and say "time to go home now playas." One boy said "but ma, we just got here."
Â
This crap is all around and with parents like this, we are going to see more and more children engaging in sex at a younger and younger age.
 @Saving Grace Hypothetical scenario: The boy probably grew up in a very sexualized atmosphere(home life) and knows quite a lot of how sex works. And of course many families make a point to go to church every Sunday(to keep up appearances), although mommy brings home a new daddy every couple of months and sees the women in the family all pimp themselves out while the male members of their families sleep in until noon because they are out all night selling/buying etc.... Probably heard the sermon about molestation then told an adult about what he's been "hitting" for a couple of years and someone thought "heck yes, now we can get a lawsuit and be set for life(although we all know whatever money they ever get will be blown in 5 years at most). Some "minors" may be minors in chronological age ONLY and are forced to mature at a very young age.
 @TJM How can a 12-year-old be expected to know what is happening to him when even you, as an adult, have great difficulty understanding how a woman, let alone a female teacher, can groom and sexually assault a 12-year-old child?
 @TJM uh huh. and he is emotionally developed to make those decisions? Do the boys parents share your opinion?