The bill is a response to the widely publicized case of James Hooker, a 41-year old high school teacher from Modesto, who left his wife and family and eloped with a blond 18-year student only one year older than his daughter. The mother of the girl-student has expressed on Facebook that she hopes the bill is passed all across the nation and not only in California. She wrote “I will continue to lobby legislation and encourage each and every state to adopt the same or similar law.”
Olsen’s proposed law takes things one step further than they are in many states in criminalizing “excess or inappropriate” communication with a student and would excessive communication with a particular or more students over email, texting and other methods will also draw the same penalty as a sexual relationship – you lose your pension, and health benefits and job.
With Tammy Powers, the grieving mother of Jordan Powers who left with Hooker, Kristin Olsen introduced the bill. The women announced the bill together at a press conference where Olsen said, “Our hope is that that will be a pretty strong and painful deterrent and will cause someone to think twice before starting an inappropriate unethical relationship with a student.”
Olsen also said “We think that we send our kids to school, these are safe and secure positive learning environments.”
Hooker and Jordan appearing on national television holding hands and kissing horrified conservative parents.
Jordan’s mother believes that though the deviant pair claims that they did not have sex before Jordan turned 18, it may not be true. She wants Hooker thrown to jail, and believes that the enormous amounts of text messages and emails sent to Jordan before she turned eighteen shows that Hooker was “grooming” her. Consequently, the bill she is backing seeks to criminalize inappropriate communication with the same penalty as having a sexual relation.