I have been wrestling with these thoughts and emotions all day. I woke up this morning to pretty shocking news that a former teacher, a Mr. Sutton, was dead. Then I read the full headline and saw that it was a murder-suicide. He had apparently shot his wife before shooting himself.
https://buffalonews.com/2018/10/03/retired-ken-ton-teacher-wife-dead-in-florida-murder-suicide
Well then I continued reading the Facebook replies. He had been accused by many female students of being a predator who had not only hit on but had sexual relationships with many teenage girls in the high school. The Buffalo News had written an article about him and another teacher receiving such accusations but it did not list his name (the other one is Michael Indian). People started replying that there was a closed Facebook group where his victims had been telling their stories. They said the Buffalo News had been investigating him and were about to release an article about his predatory behavior.
https://buffalonews.com/2018/07/08/i-was-robbed-of-a-normal-high-school-experience/
Oh, he was the gym teacher. Yeah, I didn't remember his name but then I saw his photo and I sure as hell remembered him. I had no idea at the time what he was doing to the girls but he was a bully to me. I was a terrible athlete, picked last in gym and he treated me like garbage.
Joseph Sutton convinced my mom to get me drug tested because he thought I had glassy eyes (I wore contacts and had never tried any drugs at this point). He treated me like garbage every gym class. I just stopped refusing to participate and said I would just sit in the bleachers. This eventually culminated in me refusing to go to the gym as I wanted to just sit in the locker room. He had the entire gym class come in and drag me into the gym. Fuck this piece of shit. I don't remember exactly why I was not willing to participate. Maybe it was not only being a terrible athlete but also having the "teacher" treat me like crap because I couldn't throw a ball. But he humiliated me in front of the entire class. I never came to gym class again and had to double up on gym class after transferring to an alternative school the following year.
I was an honors student up to that point.
I'm not saying what he did to me was anywhere comparable to what he did to the girls at this school. It's unfortunate that the people he was nice to are oblivious to how he treated others.
When I first opened the Facebook group posting it was full of men attacking all the women making accusations. I posted a couple likes and small supportive statements. I started posting more explicit statements like those contained here. Eventually the victims and supporters gained traction and outnumbered people ignorantly defending him. And really, how does anyone think someone who just murdered his wife could not possibly be a horrible person?
He was horrible to me and just one of many reasons I went to pieces in high school.