Reply #22: No one was hurt when I broke the speed limit last week either [View All]

[jberryhill]

It's not a question of whether anyone was hurt in any particular circumstance.

I can drive safely at 80 MPH. We've made a group decision, though, that the *risk* associated with that speed is not acceptable.

There is not a teacher alive in any state that does not know the specific law applying to age of consent and whether there is an over-riding "position of authority" section.

That "position of authority" is used as a catch-all to cover - foster parents, legal guardians, adopted children, prison guards, mental health professionals, and yes teachers.

If you go to a "we need to evaluate each individual situation" then teachers have a green light to try to seduce their students AND vice versa. Those relationships - even where consensual - are disruptive to the educational environment of a high school.

When I was in high school, it was rumored that one of our teachers and one of the students had a mutual attraction. AFTER the student graduated, the teacher and the student did marry and live happily ever after. That's fine. I really don't know what, if anything, went on before graduation, but the point is that part of accepting the responsibility of being a teacher in the public education system is that the citizens of that state are entrusting you with authority over their children, and they don't expect it to be a pick-up opportunity on either side. Along with accepting that job, you absolutely know the rules, and have to decide in advance that you are not going to go there.

Alternatively, the teacher can do the honorable thing, and seek a transfer to a different school or some other employment, if the relationship is that important. But what the teacher can't do is have sex with a student in the school where that teacher is employed.