Friday, December 03, 2004
My Thoughts on the Florida Teacher/Student Sex Case
I assume most of you know the basics of this case. If not, check out this link for one of the original stories about it:
Also, I’ll give a quick rundown. 23 year old school teacher, Debra LaFave, with a new marriage that was on the rocks. A friend of this 15 year old kid, we’ll call him Dave, in an unrelated incident, introduces Dave to LaFave at a bakesale or a football game or something. They develop a romantic relationship, and at some point they begin having sex. They have sex a few times. At some point, Dave’s mom becomes aware of the sex and the relationship. The mom calls the cops, the cops start investigating, including having Dave call LaFave and allowing the cops to record the conversations. Then Debbie is arrested and charged in late June of this summer.
That’s basically the story, as far as I can tell. Like I said, check out the above link for a better description. Now, my take.
My first thought is that if the kid had actually been the bleeding-ear inducing crooner David Lee Roth, this lady would never have been arrested. Just a hunch.
Now the part I find most interesting, the legal stuff. She’s charged with at least one, and perhaps 2, count of lewd and lascivious behavior. Now, under Florida law, this basically means sex without consent. We know that here as Statutory Rape. Now here are some intriguing facts. The age of consent in Florida is 12. This kid is 15. So why is she going on trial? Good question, well there’s another law stating basically that there can be no consent if someone has sex with someone they have authority over. But again, there’s a problem. As far as I can tell, yes, this girl is a teacher, but not HIS teacher. So, he’s of the age of consent under Florida law and, as I far as I can see, the “authority clause” piece doesn’t apply because of her position. So again, why is she going to trial? I’m not 100% sure. Yeah, you can tell me it’s immoral and horrible, and maybe it is. But under FL state law, I don’t see it being ilLEGAL. For another thing, the kid obviously was ok with it. I mean, come on, without getting too graphic here, if he didn’t want to do it or wasn’t interested or enjoying the sex, he could NOT have engaged in it. Physically I mean, he would not have been able. I think you understand.
Best I can see, the mom was upset and called the cops, that’s the only reason the cops got involved. The kid, so far, has not complained or filed a complaint. I’m not condoning this sort of thing. I’m just asking, again, is it illegal?
As a side note, had the roles been reversed, a male teacher and a female student, but ages remained the same, the man would be lynched by now. He’d be labeled a child molester, a pedophile. And perhaps he would be. But I guess she isn’t.
23 year old female teacher, 15 year old male student, both of legal age, but it’s criminal. But a 28 year old school administrator and a 19 year old girl, they get married and everyone’s so very very happy. Maybe she should have just waited three years.
RM
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I assume most of you know the basics of this case. If not, check out this link for one of the original stories about it:
Also, I’ll give a quick rundown. 23 year old school teacher, Debra LaFave, with a new marriage that was on the rocks. A friend of this 15 year old kid, we’ll call him Dave, in an unrelated incident, introduces Dave to LaFave at a bakesale or a football game or something. They develop a romantic relationship, and at some point they begin having sex. They have sex a few times. At some point, Dave’s mom becomes aware of the sex and the relationship. The mom calls the cops, the cops start investigating, including having Dave call LaFave and allowing the cops to record the conversations. Then Debbie is arrested and charged in late June of this summer.
That’s basically the story, as far as I can tell. Like I said, check out the above link for a better description. Now, my take.
My first thought is that if the kid had actually been the bleeding-ear inducing crooner David Lee Roth, this lady would never have been arrested. Just a hunch.
Now the part I find most interesting, the legal stuff. She’s charged with at least one, and perhaps 2, count of lewd and lascivious behavior. Now, under Florida law, this basically means sex without consent. We know that here as Statutory Rape. Now here are some intriguing facts. The age of consent in Florida is 12. This kid is 15. So why is she going on trial? Good question, well there’s another law stating basically that there can be no consent if someone has sex with someone they have authority over. But again, there’s a problem. As far as I can tell, yes, this girl is a teacher, but not HIS teacher. So, he’s of the age of consent under Florida law and, as I far as I can see, the “authority clause” piece doesn’t apply because of her position. So again, why is she going to trial? I’m not 100% sure. Yeah, you can tell me it’s immoral and horrible, and maybe it is. But under FL state law, I don’t see it being ilLEGAL. For another thing, the kid obviously was ok with it. I mean, come on, without getting too graphic here, if he didn’t want to do it or wasn’t interested or enjoying the sex, he could NOT have engaged in it. Physically I mean, he would not have been able. I think you understand.
Best I can see, the mom was upset and called the cops, that’s the only reason the cops got involved. The kid, so far, has not complained or filed a complaint. I’m not condoning this sort of thing. I’m just asking, again, is it illegal?
As a side note, had the roles been reversed, a male teacher and a female student, but ages remained the same, the man would be lynched by now. He’d be labeled a child molester, a pedophile. And perhaps he would be. But I guess she isn’t.
23 year old female teacher, 15 year old male student, both of legal age, but it’s criminal. But a 28 year old school administrator and a 19 year old girl, they get married and everyone’s so very very happy. Maybe she should have just waited three years.
RM
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