Man Jalied for Affair with 18 yr old Girl

[Flat_Eric]

dynatech - I recall a couple of similar cases at my own school when I was in the sixth form (we're talking 1980 / 81).

Two girls in my year (17 / 18 year-olds) were shagging teachers, both blokes who were then in their early to mid 30s.

In both cases it was an open secret, and (as you can imagine) the subject of much tittle-tattle round the school. But really, it was no big deal, and the general consensus was just to let them get on with it. The police weren't involved, the school governers weren't involved, it wasn't on the national news and the girls in question certainly weren't "taken advantage of" or scarred for life.

In fact I remember being told by a close female friend of one of the girls that the 'teacher half' of the relationship was even a regular and welcome guest at the girl's home, so her parents obviously didn't have a problem with it.

And when I was at university in the early to mid 80s, I knew / knew of a number of girls who were shagging (or who had shagged) lecturers. And again - no-one really cared.

I think that what's progressively happened in recent years is that in the understandable eagerness to "protect children", lawmakers have got a bit carried away to the point that they're now overzealous in their "duty of care".

So instead of seeing and judging each individual case on its merits, they see every "young person" (which now, it seems, even includes over 18s) as basically immature and vulnerable, and incapable of making their own relationship calls - even though teenagers as young as 16 can join the Army and (at least theoretically) be sent off to fight on the front lines and possibly get killed before they're even 18.

The net result: The knee-jerk reaction is now that in any case in which someone in a so-called "position of responsibility" (usually a bloke) cops off with someone they're deemed to be "responsible for" (usually a girl), they're automatically presumed to be predatory, manipulative, deviant and evil, with the girl presumed to be all innocent, vulnerable and naive.

Whereas in reality, it could just as easily be the other way round - or at least six of one half a dozen of the other.

Obviously in the case of minors and *genuinely* vulnerable young adults (mentally ill, disabled, special needs etc.) then yes - laws need to be in place to protect them. But this sentence seems way over the top to me. And as someone else pointed out higher up, had it been a female teacher with a male student, she'd have just got a slap on the wrists.

I lean towards dynatech's view on this one.

- Eric

[Deano!]

Flat_Eric wrote:

> dynatech - I recall a couple of similar cases at my own school
> when I was in the sixth form (we're talking 1980 / 81).

Glad someone here remembers when things were different.

I was in high school in the mid seventies and a young (22ish) very pretty female English teacher was a well known easy root with some of the senior boys. As in Dynatech's case, everyone knew it was going on but the boys involved were all 16 or 17 and it was seen as a typical case of how society was letting its hair down. These days there would be police, social workers, counsellors, media and Ministers of Education ordering investigations. As far as I know, none of the boys she serviced committed suicide over having poked their cocks up a girl slightly older than them.

By comparison I find it disgusting that every other day I hear of small children being starved and beaten by their parents. It often turns out that the child welfare agencies knew it was happening but did nothing. Excuses are made and privacy acts are enforced to protect those who stood back and watched some poor 2 year old being kept in a filthy box. Any jail sentences there? Not a fucking chance. They get counselling.

By the way, its usually the mother or jealous colleague that actually makes the complaint in sexual cases. Interesting.