Ex-Prof, 81, Indicted on Sex Charges
“An Ulster County Grand Jury indicted former SUNY New Paltz Professor Wade Thompson on felony charges of sexual abuse and assault. On the morning of April 19, Thompson, 81, brought one of his female college students to his New Paltz home and repeatedly struck her with a belt ‘in an unwanted sexual manner,’ District Attorney Donald Williams said in a press release. The woman suffered severe bruising. The day after the incident, Thompson told a reporter, ‘She much enjoyed her part. … When she left, she left a very happy girl.’ Both Thompson and the victim testified to the Grand Jury. ‘By returning the indictment,’ Williams said, ‘the Ulster County Grand Jury has validated the victim’s sworn testimony and formally condemned individuals who use their power and authority to physically and psychologically degrade another.’ Thompson was also indicted on a charge of forcible touching, a misdemeanor.” —Record Online (US)
Nowadays academics usually have lengthy bibliographies listing the many articles and books they needed to publish in order to win tenure. Professor Thompson, however, doesn’t seem to have published much. Amazon lists two books of poetry published in the 1950s. Their titles — Guest of Time and Grassroots of Time — suggest a Whitmanesque approach, but evidently the books were pretty forgettable. In retrospect Professor Thompson may be better remembered for an article that apparently presages his sexual antics: “Infanticide and Sadism in Wuthering Heights,” in which he discusses the “sadism, violence, and wanton cruelty” of the famous novel by Emily Bronte. Curiously, it’s hard to turn up any other books or articles by the spunky — or spanky? — professor. Evidently he blew his wad on the Bronte article.
Be that as it may, it’s pretty hard to believe that this 81-year-old man could have overpowered any adult victim. Here’s a picture of the guy (seated), and he doesn’t exactly look like a bruiser. Someone who claims to have been a former student wrote on another web site: “I actually know this professor, I’ve taken one of his courses! Something is definately odd about this story because if you ever see this guy, you would wonder how he’d even be able to still get it up, let alone inflict bruises on anyone, even with a blunt object. Viagra is dangerous, I suppose.”
An article in the Chronicle of Higher Education gave the professor’s vantage point on the whole business. (The article requires a paid subscription, but Google has a free cache of it.) Professor Thompson claimed “that the student, who was taking one of his courses, had been ‘pursuing him in a sort of weird way,’ sending him candy and flowers. He said that during the April 19 encounter, they did engage in ’sadomasochistic’ sexual behavior, involving ’spankings and whippings with a belt,’ but he said that there was ‘no coercion of any kind’ and that it was entirely voluntary on her part. While the former professor acknowledged that his behavior was unprofessional, he said there was nothing illegal about it.”
While it’s never nice to blame the victim, somehow it’s hard not to believe the professor. How could a slight old man have overpowered an adult student? If she didn’t consent to the behavior, couldn’t she have just run out the door? She doesn’t claim that he pulled a gun or anything on her. Was she afraid she’d get a bad grade?
I have known Dr. Wade Thompson for many years. I was student in several of his lit classes, and I also had a long-standing friendship with him that started when I was working in a local strip club. As a teacher, Dr. Thompson was passionately opposed to patriarchal ideas of gender, including those embedded in sexuality. He was, in fact, one of the most feminist instructors I had at SUNY New Paltz. I never once felt that he paid any weird attention to me or other women in the class, in fact, he made an effort to promote intelligent discourse on gender and sexuality issues as they came up in the literary texts we read.
The friendship I had with Wade started when he visited the strip club I was working in, about ten years ago. He was not only a great tipper, but totally respectful and interesting to talk to. Classes above the majority of men I dealt with. From there we became friends. An operation for prostrate cancer left him impotent years ago, so there was never any “sex,” anyway, I wasn’t interested in intercourse with him. Yes, Wade is into S/M, but so are a lot of people, including me. We were kindred spirits in this way and I have only wonderful memories of the afternoons we spent together. The main point I want to get across about Wade is that he is a counter cultural sexual revolutionary, a Henry Miller of the turn of this century. He rejects (puritanical) sexual morality, but not common morality, not human decency. The man is not violent. He does not get off on forced anything, he gets off on women who enjoy themselves. I’ve engaged in numerous spanking scenes with him, and the man has never laid a finger on me without my consent. And yes, there were times, when I wasn’t in the mood, and Wade never pressured me in any way.
I believe that the 41 year old student consented to something she wasn’t sure about and then told her boyfriend about it and he became ballistic. Or something like that. I am certain that Wade did not touch or spank her without her consent.
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