JUBAIL, 27 May 2007 — Ah, mentors. There are good mentors and there are bad ones. Sometimes good mentors are admired by society (for making their students work hard) and sometimes they are despised by their students (for making them work hard). And then there are mentors who are admired by their students, but perhaps not for the right reasons. This is what happened in this eastern Saudi city recently when parents complained that one high school teacher was wowing his students with stories about his life of adventures, the daily Al-Watan reported yesterday. Without going into any interesting detail, the newspaper said that the teacher was telling students about his exploits, including unmentionable exploits at local commercial centers. The fact the newspaper didn’t go into detail regarding the exploits, one must assume they involve either theft, uninvited flattery directed at women or some other form of socially unbecoming rabble-rousing. Parents complained to local education officials that they feared the teacher would have an unhealthy influence on his students, causing them to stray from their studies. Education officials are looking into the matter to see if the teacher is overstepping his privilege as an influencer of youth.