At least once a year a case involving allegations of a sexual relationship between a teacher and student comes blaring across the metro section of the paper. Although the relationships are typically consensual, the teacher is prosecuted under a specific provision of the penal code prohibiting an Improper Relationship Between Educator & Student. It is important to note that the offense is neither limited to teachers nor limited to sexual contact; risqué text messages are enough:
An employee of a public or private primary or secondary school commits an offense if:
(1) the employee engages in sexual contact, sexual intercourse, or deviate sexual intercourse with a person who is enrolled in a public or private primary or secondary school at which the employee works and who is not the employee's spouse, or
(2) with the intent to arouse or gratify the sexual desire of any person, the person, over the Internet, by electronic mail or text message or other electronic message service or system, or through a commercial online service, intentionally:
(1) communicates in a sexually explicit manner with a minor; or
(2) distributes sexually explicit material to a minor, or
(3) the person, over the Internet, by electronic mail or text message or other electronic message service or system, or through a commercial online service, knowingly solicits a minor to meet another person, including the actor, with the intent that the minor will engage in sexual contact, sexual intercourse, or deviate sexual intercourse with the actor or another person.
All three different acts could be prosecuted under separate statutes. For cases involving minors under 17, the educator could be prosecuted under the Aggravated Sexual Assault statute [link], the Indecency with a Child by Contact statute [link], or the Indecency with a Child by Exposure statute [link]. For situations involving sexually explicit communications with a minor, the educator could also be prosecuted under the separate computer crime of online solicitation of a minor. [link]
The only difference between this statute and the laws prohibiting otherwise consensual sexual contact is age. While the sexual assault statutes prohibit sexual contact for minors under 17, the student-teacher statute makes it a crime for consensual sexual contact involving students who are 17 years of age and older. Under the strict mandates of the statute, a person who is legally an adult cannot have sexual contact with their teacher or school administrator so long as he or she is enrolled in the same school. For those adults in night school with a crush on their teacher: you now have a reason they’re ignoring your advances. |
