But this phenomenon of “educator sexual misconduct,” or ESM, is not as bad as it appears.

In fact, it’s worse.

Such stories evoke the prurient pop music theme found in the rock band Van Halen’s 1984 tune “Hot For Teacher.”

However, in the real world, the overwhelming majority of these criminal relationships are never disclosed and prosecuted, and their destructive impact on victims goes largely unreported.

It was “traumatic,” said Grant Strickland, a Greenville, North Carolina teen, one of the few boys to speak out years after a 33-year-old teacher Nicole Callaham allegedly groomed him in 2021 at age 14 with alcohol and marijuana into a two-year sexual relationship.

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