SARANAC, Mich. (WOOD) — A Saranac Community Schools teacher and coach who resigned this summer amid allegations she had an inappropriate relationship with a student on Monday defended the relationship to Target 8.
Target 8 used the Freedom of Information Act to obtain the personnel file of Carmen Brown, a former teacher and boys basketball coach at Saranac High School.
A memo in the file says Brown had an “inappropriate romantic and sexual relationship” with an 18-year-old student, both while the student was in school and after he graduated. It goes on to say that Brown “groomed” the 18-year-old, used electronic media to further the relationships and sent photos to him in which she was “partially clothed.”
Brown told Target 8, it’s those words and those allegations that upset her the most.
“I care for [the 18-year-old]. My son cares for him, and I just don’t like words like ‘grooming’ and ‘half- naked’ pictures, because that’s not how it is,” said Brown. “We’ve been very good friends. We have a strong friendship, as well. It’s not a scandalous, backseat type of love affair that it’s being made out to be.”
Brown told Target 8 that the relationship started out as a friendship. She said they began weight lifting together after the basketball season, then started helping each other with things like home improvement projects, and then the relationship turned into something more in May of this year.
“We’ve both been very honest through this, even to the point of hurting families and things like that,” said Brown. “That is just…I’m shaking right now just to watch the media, and the way it sounds is not how it is.”
Brown said she knows the relationship was not a professional one between a teacher and student.
“I’m sorry that, you know, the relationship did develop beyond what was considered professional, but a lot of the words being used are not representative of what the relationship is,” said Brown.
The district also alleges that Brown interfered with the investigation into her misconduct and influenced a recent school graduate to make false statements to the district and police.
Brown said that is categorically untrue.
Last year, 24 Hour News 8 reported Brown was cleared of wrongdoing in an investigation into alleged relationships with students from a decade ago. The new allegations came to light this June.
Brown said the relationship with the 18-year-old is ongoing.
“We’re, yes, very much still friends, and have a relationship where we help each other out. He makes me be a better person. I’ve grown as an individual, and an adult and as a mother,” said Brown.
Target 8 contacted the Ionia County sheriff, who said there is no ongoing criminal investigation.
Brown has resigned from her post and said Monday night that she does not plan to pursue another teaching position. She said she needed to leave teaching and coaching for personal reasons, including to have more time with and be a better mom to her middle school-aged son.
SHOULD LAWS ABOUT TEACHER-STUDENT RELATIONSHIPS BE TOUGHER?
While some teachers are convicted for having sex with a student, many like Brown are investigated but never charged because the student was 18 years old.
Another similar incident happened at Ionia High School, according to records from a 2011 Michigan State Police investigation.
A student told investigators it started with the teacher talking to her class. She described him as ‘very nice,’ saying she saw him ‘often in the halls’ and then their conversations moved to Facebook. She says they ‘chatted for about six months’ before they went to ‘a hotel… to have sex.’
The school district immediately suspended the teacher, prohibiting him from having contact with any students. But he was never charged because the student had turned 18 by the time the pair had sex.
Kent County Assistant Prosecuting Attorney Chris Becker said there is sometimes legal action that can be taken.
“Just because they’re 18 doesn’t mean we have to throw our hands up and say there’s nothing we can do and we’re not going to go after them,” he said.
Becker said every case is different and pointed out that the legal age of consent in Michigan is 16 in cases that are not a student-teacher relationship.
“You need to look at all the facts. We can prosecute, it just makes it more difficult,” Becker said.
And, he said, sometimes the relationships are simply not criminal even if they eventually involve a romantic element.
“It could be a great student-teacher relationship,” he said. “The teacher may do nothing wrong.”
State Sen. Rick Jones, R-Grand Ledge, previously itroduced a bill to the Michigan legislature that would have made it a crime for any school employees to have sex with students under the age of 21. It passed the Senate, but the state House of Representatives rejected it.
