BATON ROUGE – Educators who have sex with students – even those legally old enough to consent – should be subject to criminal penalties, a Senate Judiciary C Committee agreed today.
The panel unanimously endorsed HB969 by Rep. Hollis Downs, R-Ruston, which applies to teachers, coaches, counselors, school administrators and any other public or private school employees in influential positions.
The bill applies to students ages 17 and 18, who currently are considered adults and can have consensual sex. An adult having sex with a person under age 17 is subject to felony rape charges.
Downs said his bill is “seeking to deal with people in a position to have influence and great sway over students under age 19.â€
“This is certainly not limited to male teachers,†Downs said, because many recent reports of teachers having sex with students involved female teachers. “It says to a teacher, male or female, ‘You’d better keep your hands off or there will be serious consequences.â€
Full Story Here:
Bill banning teacher-student sex heads to full Senate
I’ve heard some of the late night pundits making light of this legislation, but you know what, it IS a problem and if you don’t create a specific law AGAINST these actions, you can enforce any penalty for those that would engage in these practices…
It’s a sad state of affairs when you have to make something like this a law, you’d think there would be more decency in our educators, but it hasn’t been overly exhibited lately, in many cases, and there truly are some sorry individuals in this world, sick perverts that prey on our children, and those that gravitate towards the education field find a wide open hunting ground, rich with the potential to molest the innocent and exploit the willing, youngsters that are perhaps at an age when they should know better but don’t think of WHAT they’re doing, only that they are doing, and many that ARE old enough to be considered victims, but not so young as to be thought of as molested seem to think it’s cool to have sex with a teacher, it’s some kind of big deal I guess, a badge to some right of passage to adulthood, and it must end…
I applaud the state of Louisiana for this move, now if they’ll just enforce it…
Yes, indeed, it is a sad state of affairs when such behavior requires legislation, and most of us suspect that legislation won’t solve the problem, but only provide for prosecution of those who get caught.
I think the problem addressed in that legislation is not the problem, but a symptom of the problem. I believe the real problem is one of character; character that is terribly lacking in our society today.
This suggests to me that America needs leadership much more than legislation. If you move a rotten apple from one barrel to another, it just contaminates the new barrel.
This character issue will be the foundation of my new blog and podcast that I expect to debut on July 4, 2007.
I heard the vote on this was 93-5. As Jay Leno asked…”Who the hell are the five that voted against it?”
What does it say about society that we have to have morality legislated?
(Walks away shaking head sadly..)