Inappropriate teachers deserve jail
Erin McNamee
Issue date: 12/5/05 Section: Opinion
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Do you know what Debra LaFave, Pamela Turner, Shelley White and Margaret De Barraicua all have in common? Well maybe if I mention Mary K. Letourneau's name it will ring a bell. All five of these women were teachers charged with having inappropriate relations with one of their students.
Over Thanksgiving Break, CNN reported LaFave, 25, pled guilty to charges of having sex with her 14-year-old student. She was given a sentence of three years house arrest and seven years probation. The four other women charged with similar crimes had close to the same sentences, either probation or a year in prison.
In the case of Letourneau, she was having a sexual relationship with her then 12-year-old student Vili Fulaau and became pregnant. In March of 1997, Letourneau was charged with second-degree rape of a child. Two months later, she gave birth to a baby girl. The judge gave Letourneau a light sentence of just six months in prison and just a month after her sentencing she was found again in a car with Fulaau and once again she became pregnant. The judge went back and gave Letourneau a seven-year prison sentence.
The case of female teachers having sex with their students is being heard more and more and yet still not enough is being done about it. Our justice system is failing. What kind of a message is our society getting? That it is OK to have sex with your students.
House arrest and probation are barely a slap on the wrist. These teachers were found guilty of having sex with their students and are walking around free. It took Letourneau getting caught twice and having two babies before she was actually given some good prison time to think about her actions, but even with seven years behind bars she hasn't changed. This past summer she married Vili, who is now 22 years old.
If this were a male teacher caught having sex with a female student the outcome would be totally different. Male teachers caught with female students get hard time behind bars for a crime like that. Why should male teachers get treated differently than females? The crimes are the same; the punishment should then be the same. What difference does it make if you're a male teacher having sex with a female student or female teacher having sex with a male student? Either way it's WRONG and the outcome should be the same. I see it as discrimination against men. Just because there are far more known male sex offenders doesn't mean they should be treated differently than female sex offenders. The punishments should be equal but they aren't.
Our justice system is failing and is unfair. The message I get from the punishments these women receive is what they did wasn't that big of a deal.
No one can learn from their mistakes unless they get the punishment they deserve. That is the reason we have so many repeat sex offenders. They all receive sentences and go out and commit the same crime again just like Letourneau.
Unless our justice system buckles down and starts putting sexual predators, female or male, behind bars for good it will continue to happen. Sex crimes are already an epidemic in our society and at the rate it is going, the situation will only get worse.
Over Thanksgiving Break, CNN reported LaFave, 25, pled guilty to charges of having sex with her 14-year-old student. She was given a sentence of three years house arrest and seven years probation. The four other women charged with similar crimes had close to the same sentences, either probation or a year in prison.
In the case of Letourneau, she was having a sexual relationship with her then 12-year-old student Vili Fulaau and became pregnant. In March of 1997, Letourneau was charged with second-degree rape of a child. Two months later, she gave birth to a baby girl. The judge gave Letourneau a light sentence of just six months in prison and just a month after her sentencing she was found again in a car with Fulaau and once again she became pregnant. The judge went back and gave Letourneau a seven-year prison sentence.
The case of female teachers having sex with their students is being heard more and more and yet still not enough is being done about it. Our justice system is failing. What kind of a message is our society getting? That it is OK to have sex with your students.
House arrest and probation are barely a slap on the wrist. These teachers were found guilty of having sex with their students and are walking around free. It took Letourneau getting caught twice and having two babies before she was actually given some good prison time to think about her actions, but even with seven years behind bars she hasn't changed. This past summer she married Vili, who is now 22 years old.
If this were a male teacher caught having sex with a female student the outcome would be totally different. Male teachers caught with female students get hard time behind bars for a crime like that. Why should male teachers get treated differently than females? The crimes are the same; the punishment should then be the same. What difference does it make if you're a male teacher having sex with a female student or female teacher having sex with a male student? Either way it's WRONG and the outcome should be the same. I see it as discrimination against men. Just because there are far more known male sex offenders doesn't mean they should be treated differently than female sex offenders. The punishments should be equal but they aren't.
Our justice system is failing and is unfair. The message I get from the punishments these women receive is what they did wasn't that big of a deal.
No one can learn from their mistakes unless they get the punishment they deserve. That is the reason we have so many repeat sex offenders. They all receive sentences and go out and commit the same crime again just like Letourneau.
Unless our justice system buckles down and starts putting sexual predators, female or male, behind bars for good it will continue to happen. Sex crimes are already an epidemic in our society and at the rate it is going, the situation will only get worse.
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