FORBIDDEN FRUIT GONE SOUR

It was bound to happen sooner or later.............

 

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/nation/4637956.html

Affair with teacher leads to slaying
By DUNCAN MANSFIELD Associated Press Writer

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. -- In a tragic twist to a familiar story, a teenager
who had sex with his married 30-year-old teacher was fatally shot
outside the woman's home, and authorities have charged the woman's
husband.

"You see all this stuff with teachers involved with their students. It
just comes up time after time on the national news," said Norman
McLean, father of suspect Eric McLean. "Well, this is the first time
where one has actually died over it."

McClean's wife, Erin, had completed half of a one-year teaching
internship at West High School, where she met the 18-year-old Sean
Powell last fall.

Powell's mother, who gave him up for adoption a dozen years ago but
re-established contact in 2005, said her son acknowledged having an
affair with a teacher.

"He wouldn't let me answer my cell phone," Debra Flynn recalled. "I
said, 'Why?' He said, 'Well, Mom, I'm going out with this girl.' I
said, 'So what?' He said, 'She is a counselor at school.' I said, 'Oh,
my God, Sean.'"

Flynn, whose son sometimes stayed at her home in Nashville, said she
later found text messages on her phone. "Come home. Baby, I love you.
You are beautiful," they said. She believes Erin McLean preyed on her
son.

"These teachers are feasting on our children in school and something
has to be done," Flynn said.

Powell "was a great kid, full of life," Flynn said. He had taught
himself to play guitar and just received his driver's license. His
adoptive parents, Scarlett and Jack Powell, had just bought him a car.

But he left school on Nov. 20 and did not return. School officials
refuse to explain, citing privacy laws. Flynn said her son had a
substance-abuse problem and went to rehab for less than a month.

Norman McLean described his son, one of his eight children, as "an
excellent person," who was not violent, but he acknowledged that his
son "had a lot of burden on him for months now," referring to his
wife's affair.

"Now, I am only talking about myself. But I can personally only take so
much," Norman McLean said. "Everybody has a breaking point and there is
only so much you can endure before you get to that place ... where you
lose control."

Norman McLean said his son, once a percussionist in the University of
Tennessee marching band, put his own academic career on hold to support
his family while his wife of 11 years pursued a graduate teaching
degree from the University of Tennessee. He has worked as a pizza
deliveryman while taking classes at the university.

Eric McLean is one semester short of completing a bachelor's degree in
music education. A popular performer in local rock 'n' roll bands, he
hoped to become a school band director.

On the evening of March 10, McLean called police to say an intruder was
at the couple's home. About 7 minutes later, Erin McLean called back to
say her husband had just shot Powell outside in the boy's car.

Eric McLean fled in his car, which was later found at the high school.
McLean was arrested Sunday, walking along railroad tracks about 6 miles
away, still carrying the suspected murder weapon, a shotgun.

Sean Powell was buried Thursday after a funeral attended by more than
150 friends and former classmates.

"I didn't color any rosy pictures," said the Rev. Lee Wallace, who
officiated. "I said, Sean, like myself, is not perfect. He was a boy
who had hopes and dreams and goals in life, like everybody else, and
those were cut short."

Erin McLean has moved in with relatives in Nashville with the couple's
two young sons, ages 11 and 7. She has not been charged with any
wrongdoing. Police say she has hired a lawyer but could not provide a
name.

The attorney for Eric McLean, 31, acknowledges that McLean killed
Powell. "So this trial is going to be about what really did happen and
why -- not who," attorney Bruce Poston said.

Poston said McLean is in a "state of shock. Like watching a deer caught
in the headlights. Literally wondering, 'Have I made a decision that
will ruin the rest of my life as well as others?'"