We occasionally read news stories about women in Middle Eastern countries sentenced to death by stoning or hanging for the crime of adultery. We’re appalled such state-sponsored barbarism still occurs in the 21st century.
But when it comes to women and sexual taboos, the Western world can be pretty punitive, too.
Take the case of Courtney Bowles, the 31-year-old former instructional coach at Mountain View High School in Loveland, accused of sexually assaulting a 16-year-old boy.
She was arrested Jan. 21 after a Loveland police officer allegedly caught her and a Mountain View 10th-grader in the back seat of a car in a park.
Both were undressed, and cops said they found vodka.
Bowles was booked into Larimer County Detention Center. When she was released on $50,000 bond, Judge Stephen Howard ordered her not to have contact with anyone younger than 18, including her own children.
Since then, Bowles has still not seen her two young daughters.
In a hearing Thursday, where Bowles’ lawyer asked that she be allowed to see her kids, prosecutor Renee Doak said it’s too risky at this point.
“We don’t know what is going on in that home,” Doak said, according to Friday’s account in the Loveland Reporter-Herald.
The judge denied visitation, but said he’d consider it, under supervision of a third party, at a future date.
Bowles and her husband have been married eight years. A photo in the Loveland newspaper shows them leaving the courtroom hand in hand, giving little hint of the torture the family must be suffering.
And that certainly includes their children. Which raises the question: Why punish them, too, by denying them contact with their mother? Of all times Bowles’ girls might need her, wouldn’t this be it?
Bowles has no criminal record, no red flags where she worked previously at Adams 12 and Adams 50 school districts, and her job performance evaluations apparently have been excellent.
Judge Howard did see his way to allow Bowles to phone one of her girls Friday, the first since her arrest, to wish the girl a happy birthday.
Another interesting thing about this case is who the schools and crisis agencies rallied around after the news broke of the allegations against Bowles.
A week following Bowles’ arrest, Mountain View High closed school early, at 1:15 p.m., so that counselors from a rape-crisis group could talk to teachers and staff.
Many of the sessions focused on quelling feelings that teachers and others could have stopped the alleged assault and that somehow the alleged victim was to blame, Louann DeCoursey, executive director of Sexual Assault Victim Advocate Center, told The Denver Post.
“In a case like this, it’s a natural response that really, somehow, the victim brought this on,” said DeCoursey. “On the flip side, we want to make sure the teachers aren’t blaming themselves.”
Counselors returned to the school Wednesday to hold more sessions with teachers and students.
Apparently, it takes a village to treat a case of suspected sexual assault.
We assume the young man police have identified as the victim has gotten some of that counseling, as well.
As for how much media coverage is appropriate when a female teacher allegedly beds a teenager at her school, there is no simple answer. As a culture, we’re riveted by stories of adult females who prey on young men, including the mid- 1990s saga of teacher Mary Kay Letourneau, who served eight years in prison for having sex with her 13-year-old student. She gave birth to two of his children, and married him upon her release in 2005. She is now a grandmother, and they are still together.
Some believe LeTourneau is a predator who still should be behind bars. Others call her story a tragedy, a tale of ruined lives. Others argue society has no right to tell two adults who choose to be together that they can’t.
Our laws are clear, however. If Courtney Bowles indeed had sex with a 16-year-old, she should be prosecuted and punished. But most of all, she should be pitied, and in the meantime, shown some compassion.
Mary Winter (mwinte@ ) of Denver, a former Rocky Mountain News writer, works for . She writes for the op-ed page twice a month.
