Rock star Sting denied in a 2001 interview that his hit 1980 song, “Don’t Stand So Close To Me,” was autobiographical because, as a former English teacher, admitting it to have been based on a personal experience would have cast him as predatory.

The new wave, post-punk song, the band’s third No. 1 on the UK Singles Chart, won the 1982 Grammy Award for Best Rock Performance by a Duo or a Group with Vocal in 1982. It was Sting’s attempt — an invariably successful one — to weave a teacher-student “Lolita” tale, inspired, as the singer admitted, by Vladimir Nabokov’s coming-of-age 1955 novel.

It’s easy to determine who was being admonished in “don’t stand so close to me,” whether verbally or via thoughts passing through one’s head. The song is plaintive and the storyline is so pedestrian that it works.

Likewise, the tune’s a definitive foot-stomper (the original but more so the re-recording) with the sparse lyrics retelling a forbidden love affair between a susceptible teacher and a student on the prowl for a father-figure lover.

Young teacher, the subject

Of schoolgirl fantasy

She wants him so badly

Knows what she wants to be

Inside him, there’s longing

This girl’s an open page

Book marking, she’s so close now

This girl is half his age

Don’t stand, don’t stand so

Don’t stand so close to me

Don’t stand, don’t stand so

Don’t stand so close to me

Her friends are so jealous

You know how bad girls get

Sometimes it’s not so easy

To be the teacher’s pet

Temptation, frustration

So bad it makes him cry

Wet bus stop, she’s waiting

His car is warm and dry

For educators, it can be a challenge not to succumb to the devices, the machinations, employed by young people under their watch who may have very practical but not-so-novel ideas on how to get through college.

They’re those other “scholars,” who, at least for some, “graduate” to become prized possessions, the same ones referred to by Sting in another song as a solo and a way older artist than his The Police days, the jazzy “All Would Envy.”

As an educator myself, it has always troubled me to hear my state university-educated daughters recount how the challenge in their milieu, in a departure from Sting’s narrative, is how to fend off lascivious professors.

While Sting’s song may have offered a veiled warning to students in the ‘80s, the reality for many students today is far more concerning, highlighting the vulnerability of young people passing through the academic gauntlet.

The enduring popularity of “Don’t Stand So Close to Me” shouldn’t mask the uncomfortable truth: That the line between teacher and predator, as we see it in both private and public educational institutions, is often blurred.

We, as a society, need to move beyond the “Lolita” archetype and acknowledge the power dynamics at play. It’s not about tempting students, but about educators maintaining professional boundaries and fostering a safe learning environment for all.