Teacher From Amherst First To Face ‘Howie Leung Loophole’ Law Charges - Yahoo News
BRENTWOOD, NH — A teacher from Amherst, indicted in Rockingham County, is the first to face sexual assault charges due to changes to New Hampshire law to ensure teachers, psychologists, and others with authority do not have sex with students.
Bridgette Doucette-Howell of Amherst and Merrimack was indicted in March after a 10-month investigation into accusations she had sex with and kissed an 18-year-old male student in both Exeter and Kingston between April 26 and May 13, 2021, while she was an employee, contractor, or volunteer with a primary or secondary educational institution where the person was a student.
Doucette-Howell is being prosecuted via changes to the state's sexual assault and related offenses to eliminate the “Howie Leung loophole.”
The law was amended in 2020 in the wake of the Primo “Howie” Leung teacher-student rape and sexual assault case after students reported seeing him kissing an adult student on East Side Drive in Concord in December 2018. While it was frowned upon and would often cost teachers their jobs, it was not against the law for educators to have relationships with students 18 or older. After many months of wrangling and a push by both Republicans and domestic and sexual violence advocates, the statute was amended with the addition of the sentence: “When the actor is an employee, contractor, or volunteer at a primary or secondary educational institution and the victim is a student and up to 10 months after the student's graduation or departure.”
Leung was never charged in New Hampshire; he faces multiple felony counts in Massachusetts based on accusations of rape at a camp in Newton, MA — a case that never would have come to fruition had the students not accused him of kissing the student in Concord.
Amanda Grady Sexton, the director of public affairs for the NH Coalition Against Domestic & Sexual Violence, said the Legislature saw the need to approve the changes because “it’s never appropriate for a teacher to engage in sexual contact with a student.” She said these types of relationships were inherently abusive because teachers hold power over students.
The change, along with the updated educator , approved , was expected to -student sexual abuse and misconduct .
Doucette-Howell was the at least two years ago. Not long before the alleged sexual activity, the school’s troupe was featured on WMUR-TV for putting together a post-pandemic performance.
"That only helped me by solidifying my determination to overcome my own disability — I have a hard time putting combinations of letters together — and understand that it is possible,” she . “And if people tell you it's not, it's because they just can't see it."
She was also featured in .
In late 2021, she left RSEC and began working as a career and academic advisor at Rivier University in Nashua, where she was actively , according to LinkedIn. Karen Cooper, the vice president for University Advancement, said in an email, “this individual is not employed at Rivier.”
and , Doucette-Howell espoused a number of left-of-center political viewpoints, including showing support for defunding police. She was critical of actions taken by Gov. Chris Sununu and Frank Edelblut, the commissioner of the New Hampshire Department of Education, in creating alternative opportunities for students, including learning pods. Doucette-Howell was also critical of a bill changing the definition of an adequate education in New Hampshire and of criticism toward teachers’ unions who were attempting to preserve lockdowns due to the coronavirus pandemic when parents were demanding their children be put back into classrooms, especially as the pandemic waned.
source: https://news.yahoo.com/teacher-amherst-first-face-howie-000854402.html
Your content is great. However, if any of the content contained herein violates any rights of yours, including those of copyright, please contact us immediately by e-mail at media[@]kissrpr.com.