A guidance counselor from a West Los Angeles high school faces sexual assault charges after she allegedly had a relationship with one of her students earlier this year.
On Thursday, the LA County District Attorney charged Julie Elizabeth Tichon with three felony counts of unlawful sexual intercourse with a minor more than three years younger and one felony count of oral copulation of a person under 18.
She faces a maximum of six years in state prison if convicted as charged. She pleaded not guilty during her arraignment on Thursday. The court released her on her own recognizance as she waits for her next court date on Nov. 1.
“Had a relationship with …”
Sex with a minor. Hmm … sex with a minor. I could swear we had a word for that.
I often cringe a bit at the rhetoric coming out of the men’s rights corner, but the gender bias around sex with minors in so consistent.
And the same news station KCAL also calls a 31-year-old sexually abusing underage male high school students “having sex” with them. Same deal when the perpetrator was 42.
For the first one, even after she was convicted in court of “six counts of statutory rape” meaning she has legally been convicted of raping minors and has no grounds for defamation, the headline still reads “Special Ed Teacher Sentenced To State Prison For Sex Acts With Students”.
Meanwhile, oh wow, who would have guessed? When it’s a male perpetrator against a female victim, the headline reads “Westminster High School student’s aide arrested in sexual assault of 16-year-old girl”. It doesn’t even read “alleged” or “suspicion of” for the male perpetrator like it does for the female ones (and the latter two women even had multiple victims, making the comparison even worse).
It’s fucking appalling.
Edit: Oh my god, thank you, Sacramento Bee, for being a role model in this horrible climate of downplaying women who sexually assault minors. Headline reads: “School counselor repeatedly sexually assaults teen, CA cops say. More victims sought”.
