Paris suspends cellist on sex charges
NewsIt has been confirmed today that he Conservatoire national supérieur de musique et de danse de Paris has suspended cello professor Jérôme Pernoo since the middle of March.
Pernoo, 49 is he subject of several accusations of inappropriate touching of male students.
Pernoo’s lawyer has told France Muqique that the matter is under internal investigation and his client denies the charges.
The investigative site mediapart has details of further cases in French conservatoires.
“inappropriate touching of male students”
Sounds almost innocuous, except he’s being investigated for
” ‘agression sexuelle sur mineur’, enquête menée par la Brigade de protection des mineurs”
And yet on this site we (the non-paying) are bombarded with images of naked torsos, black bulges and other such photos which don’t necessarily belong on a music site.
A sad sign of our times that we should have to pay to be rid of this optical pollution…
I make my living as a professor (not in music, alas). I have never, ever touched a student, male or female, let alone in an “inappropriate” way.
What is wrong with these people? It is not that difficult to *not* touch your students. How full of yourself, how stupid, and/or how criminally horny do you have to be to behave that way? I don’t get their motivation…
As a teacher in high school I wasn’t able to touch any student, male or female, no matter how much comfort and consolation was needed which justified this.
A sign of our dreadful times. Meanwhile, escalating depression, suicide and self-harming in the teenage cohort…… they are more in need of tenderness than every before (but mum and dad are way too busy working to even get to know them!).
If you’re a professor but not one in music, then you’re obviously not teaching applied music (i.e., an instrument, or conducting). In those disciplines the most direct way of helping students through technical problems can be by guiding them physically. It should be easy to understand how, on one hand, that can be misunderstood and, on the other, how that could either lead to abuse or be exploited for abusive purposes.
Okay, granted. Easy solution: have someone else in the room. That way there will be a witness and the teacher is secure from preposterous claims. On the other hand, if the teacher doesn’t *want* someone else in the room, that might be suspicious in its own right.
Ehm…that would raise costs a lot, and also the interaction between teacher and student could be different if there is a third person in the room.
Brass teachers have been groping for ages, insisting it was about “breathing” and “posture” and “diaphragm”, etc.
I have heard some very ostentatious wheezing at cello recitals, however, so maybe that… raison… can be employed here.
There was an oboe teacher once – a rather attractive lady – who used to get her larger male students to lie on their backs while she stood on their midriffs; this to encourage ‘strong’ breathing. Hmmm!
At my workplace the rules are explicit and ANY touching -even a tap on the shoulder- is considered sexual harassment.