About 100 U.S. teachers, mostly women, are charged with sex crimes each year, although many others go unreported. Affairs between teachers and students are becoming more common in both the U.S. and Europe, probably because the rise of social media has made communication easier and more private. In most of Europe, the age of consent is 14, while in American states it’s 16, 17 or 18. But regardless of students’ ages, teachers may be considered predators because their authority implies a potential for duress. No coercion may have been used and the student may even have bragged about the experience to his friends. Yet punishments for sex offenders are draconian, commonly far out of proportion to the crime.
Recently, a 23-year-old Minnesota teacher had an affair with a 15-year-old boy and now faces seven charges, including sexual assault of a child, use of a computer in a sex crime, child enticement, causing a child to view pictures of sexual activity, two counts of exposing genitals, and subjecting a child to harmful materials. The woman has also been charged with “brutality,” even though the boy had a second encounter with her and even denied the affair in order to protect her. Fired from her job, the woman is now subject to a sentence of 40 years in prison and a $100,000 fine if convicted of all charges. She could also be branded a sex offender for many years, if not for life. Her career is likely ruined.
An article in “Reason” magazine says that “when people hear the term ‘sex offender’ they just panic.” The result is that laws governing such affairs are commonly chaotic, cruel and even unconstitutional. Some states impose severe penalties for non-threatening behavior, such as urinating in public, to be kept on a registry for life. Some registrants are as young as 9 years old.
…… “when people hear the term ‘sex offender’ they just panic.”
Exactly. And this is the reason why draconian laws and restrictions based on emotion, usually with factual evidence to the contrary, continue to be passed. Politicians know these laws make no difference, they are using them to get or stay elected and to keep the money spigot open. The more corrupt politicians may even run a charity related to the subject to fleece the public even more.
This is not unique to SORNA, there are numerous laws at the local, State, and Federal level empirical evidence shows doesn’t make a measurable difference (in some cases have the opposite effect) yet politicians keep using these topics to get elected because voters are emotional about them. Gun, drug, and minimum wage laws come to mind just to name a few.
It is now, always has been, and always will be about the power and money. Those who get hurt along the way are inconsequential. The only relief provided is by the courts and to be honest, they are a disappointing group when taken as a whole.
i loved this
“A million Americans are being denied the right to a normal life. But conscientious people will not allow this evil to go unchallenged.”
This teacher needs to flee to CANADA- ask for political asylum
i fully agree the registry and sex laws are all draconian stupidity..the gender hypocrisy I find funny though.. if the teacher would have been a male the same reporter would have been calling for his death in the streets and to be tar and feathered..
The consent age in the United States is 18. Weman almost always recieve kess severe sentences for like crimes of Males. Yes Her Conduct as One in a position of Authority New this was wrong. She May not desurve 40 years. Which Is not what she will actually recieve. But, She should recieve the same amount of to any Male would Period.
The age of consent in the United States varies by each state. The legal age in 27 states is 16, the same age it is to get a drivers license.
Why isn’t the teacher named? Because FAC protects sex offenders that’s why!
Weirdest comment To appear on this platform all day. Congratulations!
Jacob, The individual commenting is a troll. He posts comments as other people and is a cyber vigilante on this and other forums.
Most of his hateful stuff gets moderated out, but once in a while I let something through just to remind us that it’s not all sunshine and rainbows out there.
We know who it is based on the IP and Geolocation.
FAC I actually think it’s great that you allow such content in. We all need practice handling some of the real-world views out there.
Because the teacher was not named in the publican that published the article! No Billy, please crawl back under your rock!!!
The source article (linked with “READ MORE”) that this post was copy & pasted from didn’t name the teacher.
REMINDER–Please, too, be mindful that the SO laws also keep registrants’ families from having a normal life.
This fact alone raises the number of persons so negatively affected to a number potentially between 4 million and 5 million nationwide.
Just a few ugly precedents: laws created in Nazi-era Germany; the Stalinist purges in the 1930s; the “internment” of ethnic Japanese right here in the good ol’ USA, 1942–ca. 1945.
Sadly, it will probably take more people ensnared into the labyrinthine traps of current SO laws before the structure comes crashing down, but I hope reforms will come sooner.
John S. You said (in part) “Sadly, it will probably take more people ensnared into the labyrinthine traps of current SO laws before the structure comes crashing down…”
I agree with you, and I also believe that this is exactly why we must all stick together.
Those registrants with lighter charges like peeing by the side of the road, sexting, Romeo-Juliet, and even CP (non violent stuff) must refuse to be exonerated as long as even one of us suffers under this oppression.
The politicos of this country are not stupid. They realize that by paring down our numbers, they cost us our voice. They cost us our strength to enact change and to help restore respect for the US Constitution which guarantees liberty for all and calls these right inalienable.
We have been alienated from many of our constitutional rights. Our strengths are UNITY and sheer NUMBERS.
I, for one, hope our numbers don’t erode through meaningless concessions.
It is often those of us who have a personal connection to someone on the registry who see the issue more clearly. Will it really take the majority of Americans having a loved one on the registry for people to take notice and make changes that actually results in a lower incidence of sexual harm in society? At the rate we’re going, venturing headlong deeper into the failed policies of capturing more and more persons in the web of the registry, it may just come to that.
State legislatures “are challenging state registries…Many states have admitted that their sex laws are too broad, or are ex post facto, or cruel and unusual. [But] a few, notably Texas and Florida, are toughening their sex laws.”
That’s not fair to Texas— as noted in our latest ex post facto plus filing in Does v Swearingen, Texas’ registry scheme is not as primitive as Florida’s.
Should Florida become more like other states, then? Should our families be fighting for more turnover in the legislature this year?
Excellent letter!