commentary by Patrick H. Moore
In “Coney Island Baby”, the late, great Lou Reed sings:
“Ahhh, but remember that the city is a funny place
Something like a circus or a sewer
And just remember different people have peculiar tastes.”
Although Reed was singing about the Big Apple, it appears “different people” can also have “peculiar tastes” in small-town high schools. This was certainly the case with popular band director Jeffery Gainous, age 32, at T.R. Miller High School in Brewton, Alabama, a town of slightly over 5,000 in south central Alabama just north of the Florida panhandle.
Mr. Gainous’s “peculiar tastes” (his name rhymes with heinous and you know what else) involved having sex with under-aged students (this by itself is too common a crime to really be considered “peculiar”), while spicing up his illegal acts by “tying up and gagging the girls during bondage sex sessions in the band room and his house, police said.”
Only a truly jaded soul could claim that “tying up and gagging” your under-aged students while having sex with them is not peculiar. In fact, even Lou Reed, if he was still with us and if we caught him in a reasonable state of mind, would probably admit that such a pastime is peculiar.
At present it’s not precisely clear what all the charges against Gainous ultimately will be, but one doesn’t need to be a rocket scientist to know that they are (will be) very serious.
Jeffery Gainous had just accepted a teaching job in Georgia with the Thomas County School System but was arrested and extradited back to Alabama on the sex charges. According to Brewton police, Gainous had sex with the female students and committed acts such as tying the girls up with rope and gagging them with bondage style devices. Police expect more victims to come forward in light of the latest allegations. Investigators say that at least eight young girls have had sex with Jeffery Gainous either in his home or in the school’s band room. The girls were shocked to find out that they were not the only victim.
Gainous worked at T.R. Miller high school from 2008 until 2013 when he moved on to greener pastures in Georgia. According to the Inquisitr.com, “the high school students all thought highly of (him), a young and handsome teacher who everyone thought was cool.”
Someone recently told me that “perception is reality” which would seem to be the case here. When I look at pictures of Gainous, I see a man who is certainly not handsome, but who might well seem cool to high school girls based on his position and status.
That’s the whole point. To be a band teacher is “to be cool” almost by definition. Who cares if this fool was or was not handsome? What is disturbing is the fact that Gainous clearly used his position as a “cool band director” (he was known fondly as “Mr. G”) as a tool to seduce impressionable young girls in a truly appalling manner.
And Gainous was certainly a go-getter. While at T.R. Miller High, he consistently earned superior ratings and received “Best in Class” awards. His band was selected to perform at half time at the NCAAF “BCS” Championship game in New Orleans. Under his leadership, the band program flourished and grew from about 70 to more than 100 musicians. Keep in mind this is a school whose entire enrollment is only 340 students.
Sasha Goldstein of New York Daily News reports that Brewton Lt. Brock Holt told a CBS affiliate.:
The allegations from most of the juveniles were in a sexual nature of he was basically tying them up and performing a sexual fantasy in his mind, he was taking pictures of them, video tapes of them.
Although Lt. Holt’s grammar leaves something to be desired, we get the picture. Gainous is acting out his kinky fantasies on these kids. Imagine what must be going through their young and impressionable minds as this dark scenario unfolds. Initially, they are probably excited and a bit scared, but eager to be “getting it on” with the “cool band director.” The next thing they know, he’s slipped a gag into their mouths and has them tied up.
This is nasty. I have no strong objection to the “kink”, but this sort of conduct, if one must indulge it in, should clearly be reserved for the consensual activities of adults. These kids are liable to be scarred for life.
Sasha Goldstein writes:
“I know what kids said about (Gainous),” Brewton Police Chief Monte McGougin told the newspaper. “They loved him. They say he was great, but this is terrible. It’s bad when a place where your child should be protected isn’t safe. I will say that the school board is as upset as we are. It’s disturbing.”
The investigation began after one woman, now 20, came forward and detailed the abuse, the Brewton Standard reported, which opened the floodgates leading to more students coming forward.
Gainous had only been on the job in Georgia for a few weeks when the charges arose leading to his extradition back to Alabama.
Up until the allegations arose, Gainous had managed to obfuscate his criminal activities entirely. Dr. Dusty Kornegay, the Thomas County Schools superintendent, told WCTV.:
“At the time he was hired we did a very thorough background check, we did a criminal background check, we thoroughly checked references. There was absolutely no hint of any kind of suspicion of this type of activity at all when he was hired.”
Andres Jaurequi of the Huffington Post writes that when interviewed following his arrest on Aug 20th, after initially showing no remorse whatsoever, Gainous changed his tune, assumed a posture of regret, and admitted to having sex with one of the minors and also confessed to the police that he’d sent sexually themed text messages to others.
Nevertheless, this “devil-may-care” dude maintained some of his customary cockiness at one of his court appearances telling the reporters:
“There’s always more than one side to the story.”
Here, I would beg to differ. To in any way blame the victims in this apparently open-and-shut case suggests a rather grotesque arrogance. At the same time, it is sad to see a man destroy a promising life and career so thoroughly and irrevocably.