I’m sure this will ruffle some feathers.
Recently there have been quite a few teacher-student sex scandals in the headlines. Oddly, they’re almost always a female teacher having sex with a teen boy…or boys. While I’m not advocating this is OK, there does seem to be a bit of hypocrisy.
A quick search will find a number of teens who have shot and killed someone, and then been charged as an adult. But then, when a teen has sex with an adult, why don’t we charge the student as an adult, and then make the whole thing legal? (This is called playing devil’s advocate for anyone about to blow their top.)
It seems hypocritical to say a 13 year old that kills someone should be tried as an adult…but then come back and say sorry, you’re not old enough to have sex. In a murder case we’re saying that a 13 year old is mature enough to be slapped with the same punishment we give to an adult, or in other words, they’ve acted in an a way that is on par with adult behavior. However when it comes to sex, we are unwilling to give children that adult label. What that distinction really does is make sex more of an adult act than murder. Sex is only reserved for adults. We never look at a teen in a sex case as an adult, but we do in a murder case. Still with me?
Let me make clear I’m not advocating that either is ok, and no I don’t think students should be having sex with teachers. However, it seems the measuring stick we use comes in many different sizes.
