Sentence in student sex case shocks ex-teacher in Oklahoma

[lumberjack_jeff]

46. As a society, we've gone from ignoring it...

... to punishing it harshly, but only when the teacher is a man, to punishing it severely in both cases.

I knew a kid who married his high school teacher the day after he graduated in 1977. She continued to teach.
I knew a male teacher who committed suicide about a month after allegations of an inappropriate relationship with an 18 year old student.

I think that 10 years is too much, regardless of the genders. Teens aren't children - they generally know what they want, and although the grownups around them should not enable that behavior, the flesh is occasionally weak.

Grownups with "weak flesh" shouldn't be allowed to be teachers, but I'm unconvinced that 10 years in jail and permanent place on a sex offender registry is anything other than a societal overcorrection.