P. D. James, British mystery writer
Yes, this is just wrong, primarily because it never happened to me. Seriously, I
think that this kid will regret that he said anything.However, there is certainly something wrong with the teacher on a couple of levels: She is/was a newlywed and she has a responsibility as an authority figure not to abuse that trust.
What the heck is happening to teachers, and we’re not talking male teachers? There seems to be a rash of women gone wild with young boys. Yeah, yeah, men having been doing it for years, it’s not equality, it’s just not right, if the person is not mature enough (forget the arbitrary statutory rape age).
In this particular case, the woman sounds a bit unbalanced:
A female teacher pleaded guilty Tuesday to having sex with a 14-year-old student, avoiding prison as part of a plea agreement.
Debra Lafave, 25, will serve three years of house arrest and seven years' probation. She pleaded guilty to two counts of lewd and lascivious battery.
The former Greco Middle School reading teacher apologized during the hearing, saying "I accept full responsibility for my actions."
The boy told investigators the two had sex in a classroom at the Greco school, located in Temple Terrace near Tampa, in her Riverview town house and once in a vehicle while his 15-year-old cousin drove them around Marion County.
The boy told investigators Lafave told him her marriage was in trouble and that she was aroused by the fact that having sex with him was not allowed. He said he and Lafave, a newlywed at the time, got to know each other on their way back from a class trip to SeaWorld Orlando in May 2004.
5 comments:
I wonder if it's a couple of things.
First, guys in their early - mid 20s have been dating teenage women for a long time; it's not entirely okay, and it's not all *that* common, but it's ceertainly not uncommon, either. So it makes sense that, as women's sexuality becomes less repressed, a certain number of young women would also date/sleep with (much) younger men. Second, one thing we often hear from these young women is that their husbands / boyfriends don't treat them well; so I wonder if a certain factor here might not be that, for a young woman who is pretty and used to dating guys who boss her around, dating a guy who, because of a fairly major age difference, is in awe of her and is likely to put her "in charge" of the relationship might not be an extremely attractive prospect. And third, of course, is that (much as we don't like admitting it) the power/authority/mentoring issues that are at the heart of student/teacher relationships--by which I mean perfectly normal relationships--are easily eroticized. "Hot for teacher" is a long-standing cultural idea. So again--and especially, perhaps, because K-12 teachers are still primarily women, and women teachers are still primarily expected not only to be authority figures, but to be nurturing, intimate, concerned about their students *as people*--at the same time that we've gotten more suspicious of these kind of relationships, *and* as women are more overtly sexual--that this kind of thing would not only happen more, but might also be reported more.
You'll get no argument from me.
I also very much agree with the fact that it is getting reported more. The movie "The Graduate" came out in 1967 and I'm sure if such news covered around that time, we would have seen plenty of stories then too.
I remember when I was in high school there was a rumor about a few teachers fooling aroudn with students. It seemed they were unfounded. Until after I graduated that is. :(
Bitchphd's comment, that it's an opportunity for a young woman to be the superior party to a sexual relationship, makes a lot of sense.
In some cultures, older women educate a young man in the ways of sex. It seems like a good system to me! Later, when the man marries someone of his own age, his wife gets a lover who knows his way around in bed.
I can't seem to escape the notion that it's exploitative when we're talking about an older man and a teenaged woman, but not when its an older woman and a younger man. Is that just residual sexist thinking on my part, or is there some validity to it?
Q
Well, if Dr. B comes back, I'd be interested in her opinion too on whether it's sexist thinking that it is not as bad if an older woman seduces a teenager as opposed to an older man and a teenage girl.
The news I have seen this morning has the woman's ex-husband up in arms that she was not thrown in jail, which gives even more validity to Dr. B's comments. The boy's parents were satisfied with the punishment. I think this punishment was certainly more fair than what the "Cool Mom" received which was 30 years.
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