Obsession

There are so many things to be outraged over each day that we can let our precious anger get scattered all over the place. So today, I think I'll concentrate all mine on the Wayne High School assistant principal, who is the latest man to succumb to Woody Allen's Disease, with a 17-year old female student:

School officials told police that Assistant Principal Kristopher Sennett said “he was in love with her and admitted having a relationship with her, but did not admit anything sexual,” according to a police report.

"This relationship is so real that I don't think of you as being that much younger," he wrote to her in an e-mail that was released by the school. Uh-huh. A 36-year-old asssitant principal doesn't think about his age difference with a 17-year-old student. I believe that. Absolutely I do.

This kind of stuff seems to be happening all over the country, including a lot of female teachers taking advantage of their male students. And taking advantage is what they're doing, the same way a therapist does when sleeping with a patient. Someone whose authority is built into the relationship uses that authority against someone who is vulnerable to it.

It's still jarring when it happens here, though. How does he face his wife and two children now? How does he even go out in public? Does he still keep his delusion going? I was in love. I couldn't help it. Don't you understand? Sorry, pal, you weren't in love, just obsessed. Heaven knows we can all become obsessed with someone else; yes, I've fallen victim a time or two. There is always an element of narcissism involved in such obsessions, blinding us to anything but our own egos. But when it makes you blind even to what a creep you have become -- well, state law calls it "child seduction" for a reason.