Teacher Leaves Family for Student
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MODESTO -- A 41-year-old Enochs High School teacher in Modesto has resigned and moved in with an 18-year-old student.
The reaction has been largely shock, disapproval and betrayal.
The teen's mother has waged a very public campaign on Facebook since last week, when her daughter moved out of the family's home and into a Modesto apartment with the man. He has left his wife and children, one of whom is a junior at Enochs.
Modesto police are investigating whether there was inappropriate contact before the girl turned 18 in the fall.
And school district and teachers union officials worry that an ethical and moral line has been crossed, even if the student is legally an adult.
James Hooker was placed on paid administrative leave Feb. 3 by Modesto City Schools and resigned Feb. 22, he said Tuesday. Hooker taught business and computer classes, and he was an adviser to three active campus clubs.
"In making our choice, we've hurt a lot of people," Hooker acknowledged. "We keep asking ourselves, 'Do we make everyone else happy or do we follow our hearts?' "
Hooker and Enochs senior Jordan Powers said Tuesday in an interview at The Bee that they are making a life for themselves "day by day."
Powers was in Hooker's virtual business class and an associated club until his suspension. They said they met when she was a freshman.
Tammie Powers, Jordan's mother, said she believes Hooker pursued her daughter. She said her daughter's grades fell this year, and Jordan had panic attacks.
"I believe it was the stress of the lie," Tammie Powers said. She said her daughter was "always compliant," kept her room tidy at their Waterford home and minded her curfew. No R-rated movies until she was of age. No lone trips to the mall or the movies.
"I was really, really careful. I wanted her to be safe," she said.
"In hindsight, in retrospect, I should have looked at things differently," Powers said.
Powers said her first inkling that her daughter was involved with her teacher came Jan. 16, during her young son's trip to the emergency room. Hooker came to the hospital with her daughter, who left her phone with an older sister.
The sister, suspicious, found dozens of text messages from Hooker. Powers said when she confronted her daughter, she denied any romance existed. Still worried, Powers contacted Modesto police detectives the next day.
Looking back over phone records, she said she found an estimated 8,000 text messages between the teacher and student going back through the summer. In the fall, about 32 texts a day, starting at 6 a.m. were recorded, she said.
School officials contacted her about a week later with concerns, she said. Discussions between police, school and the family continued for another week, ending with Hooker's suspension Feb. 3.
At that point, Powers said, she was assured by school officials that Hooker would stay away, and her daughter said she was done with Hooker.
"She promised me they didn't have contact. I didn't know until last week there was a sexual relationship. We didn't see any of it," Powers said.
Jordan Powers' father died in 2001. Tammie Powers is engaged, and her fianc
