Amy Beck’s pictures began showing up on local news media outlets in California Monday after her arrest. They went nationwide within a day. By Wednesday, Amy Beck was a top Google trending topic and her picture was everywhere. She was featured on various news shows and her name remained a hot topic due to the manner of her arrest — she had turned herself in because of the overwhelming guilt she felt for having an affair with a 14-year-old student in 2009. By Saturday, there was public demand to see pictures of the 33-year-old social sciences and English teacher.
But does she look any different because of her pedophilic tendencies? Hardly. Pedophiles look no different the the average citizen, which is why they are so difficult to capture and incarcerate. Still, it is a rare occasion that one turn themselves in to face prosecution.
And the public has every right to be interested in what Amy Beck looks like. She’s now a self-admitted pedophile, according to the Burbank Police. After resigning from her teaching position Friday, Amy Beck, who had taught at David Starr Jordan in Burbank for 10 years, walked into a police station with her lawyer and confessed to a nine-month sexual relationship with one of her 14-year-old students. She told police that the guilt had driven her to turn herself in.
To make matters worse, Beck has three children of her own.
Amy Beck is a rarity. Most people are driven by curiosity to see rarities. It is why people are attracted to freak shows at carnivals and museums like Ripley’s Believe It Or Not! Since Amy Beck is a rarity among teachers (very few of them are pedophiles) and among those guilty of having sex with children (being driven by guilt so intense that they turn themselves in), she is the very definition of a rarity.
People want to see pictures of the rarity.
One of the best sites on the web for finding the rarities that are pedophilic teachers (and those alleged to be) is Bad Bad Teacher (BadBadTeacher.com). The site is loaded with information on news of teachers who have been accused of having sex with their students. Even better, each teacher, like Amy Beck, who has crossed that teacher/student boundary, has a mugshot or picture displayed. Although having sex with a student does not necessarily mean that the teacher would continue with their pedophilic tendencies outside the school system, parents and the general public still have the right to know who might be a potential danger to their children. Websites like Bad Bad Teacher are a good resource for monitoring those who have taught and had inappropriate relations with their students, continually updating their information in matters of teachers being bad.
After conviction, other good resources for finding information about teachers gone bad are the National Sex Offender Registry (FamilyWatchdog.us) and the Department of Justice’s National Sex Offender Public Website (NSOPW.gov), where one can search through databases to find those listed as sexual predators and sex offenders throughout the United States. There are pictures of the registered as well.
Unfortunately for Amy Beck, this is just the beginning of pictures, videos, and images that will be available to the public going forward. The 33-year-old teacher has been booked on four charges of having unlawful sex with a minor under the age of 15 and oral copulation with a minor under the age of 15. She will be arraigned on March 25 and is being held on $175,000 bond, which she ironically told her lawyer she wishes to forego paying for awhile — to remain in jail — to avoid media attention.
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Sources:
BadBadTeacher.com
FamilyWatchdog.com
NSOPW.gov
