Jeff Wenham
Posted by: Webmaster in California, Charter Schools, Counselors, Hall of Shame
(09/16/08 - Initial BBT Report)
Jeff Wenham, 46, a former teacher and student body adviser at Helix Charter High School in La Mesa, California pleaded guilty in El Cajon Superior Court today to misdemeanor charges of committing a lewd act in public and failing to report that another teacher also was having an inappropriate relationship with a female student.
Wenham faces up to a year in jail at sentencing on October 15th.
Wenham came to the attention of authorities when the father of an 18-year-old student reported to officers that his daughter was having an “inappropriate relationship” with a teacher. That teacher was later identified by police as Wenham.
Wenham is the fourth Helix Charter High School teacher sentenced for the sexual abuse of students in the past two years.
Last month Gary Wilcox was sentenced to a year in jail after pleading guilty to having sex with a 17-year-old female student. Wilcox’s victim is the same female student victimized by Jeff Wenham.
Previously Jessica Kahal and Frank Palumbo, two Helix High music teachers, were found guilty of having sex with students in 2006 and 2007. Both received probation and community service.
10./15/08 - Sentencing
Jeff Wenham has been sentenced to serve 60 days in a work program where he spends his nights in a locked building.
Wenham was also ordered to perform 20 days of community service and serve three years probation.
References:
Teacher sentenced in wake of sexual relationship with student (10/15/08)
Ex-Helix teacher pleads guilty to inappropriate relationship with student (09/16/08)
Student adviser admits inappropriate relationship (09/16/08)
Ex-Adviser Admits Inappropriate Relationship (09/16/08)
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October 15th, 2008 at 11:40 pm
give me a break…you drop off your child at school and you trust the teachers are not going to try to have sex with them. as well, if the girl has a low self esteem or a crappy homelife, the teacher is still responsible to try to help them…not screw them. teaching is a sacred responsibility, teachers are given a child to care for….if wenham doesnt understand that an emotional relationship is not part of the formula, he should be in jail until he does…he should have gotten a year in jail.
October 15th, 2008 at 5:15 pm
The girl’s parents must be so proud of her. She did two teacher from the same school. Just think how she’ll be when she’s out on her own and enters the workforce. She’ll be able to do as many guys as she wants to from the entire community, if she hasn’t already started. It sounds more like she is the sex offender, not the teachers.
September 18th, 2008 at 10:53 am
Looks like i struck a nerve. Yes webmaster… i guess that is why we all are intitled to our own opinions. You believe everyone who commits a crime is bad and i choose to believe that there are good poeple who make mistakes. So continue to write your opinions because there are several people on here who live for your righteousness. But just know that there many people on here who only see your opinions as just that….an opinion and that your opinion is not necessarily right.
September 16th, 2008 at 10:30 pm
I have made a post on another “sex offenders” page stating when are the studets who participate in these ADULT acts going to be held responsible for thier part in the act? And I capitalize ADULT because if the “victims” murdered someone, they would charged as an adult. But they are convieniently little kids when it comes to this situtation. The law can’t have it both ways. Either they are little kids who do not know what they are doing or they are adults.
Anyhow, this particular case is interesting to me because two men are facing criminal charges or have been convicted already for having an “innappropriate” relationship with a student. Not just any student… but the same student. So since the webmaster likes to to take polls on other people’s unfortunate life changing events since he/she seems to know it all, i will take a poll on this question…. WHO FEELS LIKE THERE MIGHT BE SOME PEOPLE UNDER THE AGE OF 18 WHO COULD POSSIBLY KNOW EXACTLY WHAT THEY ARE DOING WHEN THEY PARTAKE IN THESE INNAPROPRIATE RELATIONSHIPS AND MANIPULATE THE SITUTATION JUST SO THEY CAN BE THE VICTIM?
I try not to judge a situation because ultimately, we are not in both the “offender” and the “victims” shoes when these acts are commited. We don’t know all the facts, we just get to hear what the media says and, if anyone has a brain cell in thier head, the media takes anything they can and twist it around to make it sound as bad as possible. I am passionate about this issue because my favorite high school teacher who was the only one who bothered to let me talk to him when gun shots echoed down the hallways and killed many of the students. He was wrongfully accused because an immature 11th grade little girl decided to tell the police enforcement officer placed at our school that she slept with him over a dare that her friends made. He was found not guilty but his teaching career was over because he was not Tenure yet and no one would hire him after that. The school of course let him go after an uproar from parents. So I am helping that teacher who helped me so unselfishly by trying to get people to wake up and realize that these teenage kids, are more than just little children. Kids are getting older these days and taking on life at a faster rate than when were were in school. And i was in school just 7 years ago.
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Webmaster’s comment:
In an illegal relationship between teacher and student it makes no difference what-so-ever if the student is the instigator of the relationship, just a willing participant or a non-willing victim, the student is not the criminal, the teacher is.
The laws prohibiting sexual relationships between teacher and students are clear, simple and easy for anyone with even the slightest degree of common sense to understand. They fall under the broad umbrella of “Thou shall not…”, and as with other criminal laws, are prohibitionary in nature, i.e. “This activity is prohibited, don’t do it” and “If you do, expect to be arrested, charged, tried and if convicted, jailed”. Supposedly a person with a college degree and teacher certification has the degree of both knowledge and common sense to realize that violating this criminal prohibition is not a good idea and doing so brings great risks. If the individual does not realize these simple facts they have no business being a teacher.
Laws prohibiting sexual relationships between teachers and students do not criminalize the conduct of the minor in the relationship, only that of the adult. The adult, supposedly a person who has reached a level of maturity sufficient to comprehend that a sexual relationship between a teacher and student is illegal and this without regard to whether the student desires or instigates the illegal teacher-student relationship.
If you do not like the way the laws are written in your state of residence, contact your legislators and make you view known and work to get the law changed to your liking. Until the laws are changed they should be enforced and those violating them should be brought before the bar of justice, just like any other criminal…