teacher gets aways w/ bangin student

[RACER X]

http://blogs.ajc.com/get-schooled-bl..._schooled_blog


http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/cri....legal.sex.cnn

Gross, awful, but legal: Judge calls it in teacher sex case
4:12 pm December 9, 2009, by Maureen Downey

I think both the judge and the school district made the right decisions in the sexual assault case against former Marietta High School teacher Christopher King. (See earlier post for more details. Read AJC breaking news story on the verdict.)

When the Marietta system found out that King was involved in a sexual relationship with a 17-year-old student, it made him resign. Today, a judge in Cobb County ruled that while the 36-year-old King’s relationship with a student repelled him, it wasn’t a crime.


Former Marietta High School teacher Christopher King, right, and prosecutor Maurice Brown, listen as defense attorney Scott Semrau gives opening arguments in a case growing out of King's sexual relationship with a student. Brant Sanderlin bsanderlin@ajc.com

Judge Robert Flournoy issued a direct verdict Wednesday afternoon in the case. “It was gross, it’s awful, but it ain’t illegal,” he said. “This was a consensual relationship.”

The Georgia Supreme Court ruled in June that when the student is a willing participant and is 16 or older, the student’s consent can be a defense for teachers facing a sexual assault charge.

Had King been convicted of sexual assault, he faced 10 to 30 years in prison. In his favor was the testimony of the former student on the stand today; she said she was not coerced and the relationship was absolutely consensual.

[The student] was obviously persuasive, ” said King’s attorney Scott Semrau. “She was thoroughly knowledgeable about what she wanted.”

No one can complain that King was not punished at all. His immaturity and lack of judgment in pursuing an honors student who worked on his school newspaper staff cost him his teaching career. King resigned in lieu of termination and had his teaching certificate revoked by the Professional Standards Commission.

Now working as a salesman, King would like to resume his relationship with the girl, according to his attorney. (Hearing that, I think the charge of immaturity still stands against King.)

“I know he cares very deeply about her, but at this point the ball’s in her court,” Semrau said. As for teaching again, “Realistically, [King]’s put [that] behind him,” said the attorney.

Many people say the high school student will someday regret the relationship and suffer because of it, but is that reason enough to say she was incapable of giving consent?

Is the prospect of pain and regret reason to argue that she was not competent to consent to the affair in the first place?

After all, some high school girls will eventually regret the relationships they are having now with boys their own age, too. (And there are probably women today who still feel pain over high school romances.)

There is the issue of balance of power in relationships between teachers and students, and there are valid concerns about whether the teacher pressured the student. That does not appear to be the case here, based on the young woman’s comments on the stand.