Contrasting The Disappearance of Tiffany Sessions and Lisa Lavoie

There is a difference between running off and going for a run and never coming back. No clearer is that contrast then when one compares Lisa Lavoie to Tiffany Sessions. Lets start with the latter. Twenty years ago, 20-year-old Tiffany Sessions was a junior studying economics at the University of Florida in Gainesville. Tiffany went for a run and she never came back. That was February 9, 1089. Tiffany's disappearance has remained a mystery.

College student Tiffany Sessions has been presumed to be abducted and murdered. Unfortunately, tracking Tiffany's steps back in 1989 was almost impossible. There were no GPS enhanced cell phones. There were no Amber Alerts and missing person web sites were still for the most part a figment of Al Gore's imagination.

Contrast that with the disappearance of Lisa Lavoie. Recently, Lisa Lavoie a 22 year old teacher disappeared. Unfortunately so did a 15 year old boy. Through modern technology, Lavoie was quickly located in West Virginia. Lavoie shortly thereafter surrendered to police. The 15 year old teen was safely recovered from a hotel. The eighth-grader will be interviewed and debriefed by child welfare officials. He will then be reunited with his family. It should be clear that the teen showed "no outward signs of physical abuse" and the strong suspicion was that he left with the 8th grade teacher of his own free will. Police suspect that 24 year old Lisa Lavoie and the teen are romantically involved. Troopers catch LaVoie and the boy at Super 8 Motel at Glenmark Center? Apparently, electronic credit card transactions and cell phone pings allowed for a relatively quick location of Lavoie. Had such electronic conveniences been readily available in 1989, perhaps Tiffany Sessions would have been located too. This is not to suggest that Tiffany's disappearance was anything other than an abduction. The point is to demonstrate the advances in locating individuals today in the modern era.

Lavoie taught in Holyoke for five months. There is only nine years difference in the age of the teacher and the teen. (Seven years as first reported.) With student and teacher so close in age, is possible attraction between them not to be assumed and guarded against by school administrators? Clearly, the school board thinks it is not natural. But as these cases become more and more common, it becomes clear that the potential for such attraction has become a reality. To deny the existence of the possibility of such attraction is to delay solving the problem. One teacher commented off the record that female teacher and male student attraction has always existed but until recently it has only been a concern when the relationship involves a male teacher.

Better training and screening of teachers is a step in the right direction. Like most of the alleged male victims, there is unlikely to be a lot of sympathy for his experience. Like some of the alleged victims, he may chose to pursue a relationship with the teacher when he is legally able to do so. But until he is of age, the laws of the state don't allow him or his teacher to make such choices. In the meantime, Lisa Lavoie has been placed on paid administrative leave. She is represented by David Hoose, a Massachusetts attorney. Lisa is to be considered innocent of all allegations unless otherwise proven in a court of law.