Teachers that have sex with little kids

In recent months, there have been a couple of cases of teachers having sex with little kids – ‘little’ boys of 15 years old. The funny thing is that, these teachers are married and are pretty good looking. One of them was 25 and she had an intimate relationship with a 15 year old boy. Not that I have anything against older women with younger men, no. But at 25, I wonder what the teacher saw in the kid. But that’s beside the point.

Worse is the fact that the teacher got reprimanded in high court and made a fool out of. The kid however, was shielded from the media and everyone absolved him of his crime, as if he was molested by his teacher and irreparably traumatised.

1. The kid himself wanted it. When I was 15, I would want that sort of attention too. Who wouldn’t? Imagine how I could show off.

2.The teacher began to wear “revealing, sexy clothes to school, more suitable for a Friday night out, than for teaching”. Hello?? Is that cool or what? Any 15 year old would like to be flattered like that.

3. It takes two to tango and two to screw. At 15, the boy would be reasonably strong physically. There was no way he could not overpower his petite teacher. I doubt very much she was armed with a knife.

BUT the general rule of special treatment still holds and the sentences and care received by child-criminals are kinder than is the case with adults. All of which implies that society regards children as educable but needing protection, including from themselves, because of their inferior powers of reasoning. But rationally, is it really much less disturbing for a 15 year old to initiate sexual relations with a 25 year old than vice versa?

There is a fundamental contradiction in the way adults think of children. While adults understand that children are not fully responsible for themselves, they somehow also cling to the idea of childhood innocence. Children are expected to be better than adults. If a child could so violate the adult ideal of sexual innocence, the thinking goes; he must be prey to someone preternaturally and irredeemably horny. That a teacher wields a certain authority over students adds fuel to the theory that the boy had “no choice but to submit”.

This fuzzy thinking rejects the possibility of rehabilitation, which, especially for the very young, is one of the penal system’s main functions. It also ignores and excuses the failings of teenagers whose job is to try to prevent such egregious behaviour in the first place.

Damn! I wish I did more when I was 15…