BISD Teacher Arrested for Inappropriate Relationship With Student

[bullets13]

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[Dirty_but_Dazzling]

sadly, through out America this is a daily type headline. SMH!

[tvc184]

It is a stupid law.

At the very least the penalty should be radically reduced.

 I could go into much more examples if needed but as an example:

An 18 year old guy graduated last year. He is still 18 and gets his first job on the maintenance crew at the high school. He mows grass, helps unload trucks with office supplies, etc. A 19 year old girl is a senior at the high school. They are attracted to each other and start having a relationship.

By Texas law the 19 year old girl is a victim. The 18 year old boy? He has committed a 2nd degree felony.

 What are other examples of 2nd degree felonies? A guy gets drunk, causes an accident and kills a 10 year old child or a guy finds out that his wife is cheating on him so in a sudden rage of passion, he shoots and kills his wife. I could give others but two different homicides should get the point across.

 That is the equivalent the 18 year old guy is facing… 20 years in prison. Why? Because of his place of employment. Had the same guy found a new job across the street from the high school doing the exact same thing but 50 feet away, it is two consenting adults.

A 17 year old girl in high school could have a relationship with a 50 year old man (or woman) who works at the store across the street from the school and it is completely legal. Again it is between two consenting adults.

So an 18 year old having a sexual relationship with consent with a 19 year old is a felony but a 50 year old having a sexual relationship with consent with a 17 year old isn’t.

 

Let’s refresh our memories of the class of felony. The 18 year old having a 19 year old girlfriend is the equivalent of a drunk driver killing a child.

Someone please explain the rationale.

If you want such a law to stop potential corruption like a teacher doctoring grades, absolutely. Write a law that says it convicted the teacher is terminated and loses his/her license to teach for lifetime. If they want to attach a criminal penalty to the teacher who has already lost a career, make it a misdemeanor like a B with 180 days maximum or an A with a year maximum.

Why the 20 year maximum felony for a relationship with two consenting adults? And then… if the same 18 year old guy and the same 19 year old girl start the relationship the day after she graduates OR…. she is still in school but it is in a college where he works and she attends, it is no crime.

There are laws if the student is 16. That would be sexual assault of a child. By all means, prosecute him/her. But an 18 year old student and a 19 year old teacher’s aide? 

Ridiculous. 

[mat]

I can understand your argument that the law may need some tweaking but I don’t see how your examples relate to this story. She is 32 and I didn’t see his age. I do understand and agree with the law in general to help protect out children from predators in the school system. 

[tvc184]

1 minute ago, mat said:

I can understand your argument that the law may need some tweaking but I don’t see how your examples relate to this story. She is 32 and I didn’t see his age. I do understand and agree with the law in general to help protect out children from predators in the school system. 

I intentionally gave a radically different age to show the stupidity of the law. It is the same law regardless of the ages.

 I also gave the example of a 17 year old and a 50 year old. In that case he works 50 feet away from campus so it is just consenting adults.

 Here is another example. Nederland and PNG are literally across the street from each other. The same 32 year old teacher could have the same relationship with the same student as described in the actual case. BUT… they live across the street from each other. The teacher lives on the PNG side and the (unknown age) adult student lives in the Nederland side of the street. The teacher was tutoring the student and it led to the relationship but guess what? No crime has been committed because ever though they live 50 feet apart, the student attends a different school. So age and occupation are not a factor. 

So when is a consenting adult the victim of a predator? When they live across the street from each other he/she isn’t a victim but if on the same side of the street he/she is?

As I mentioned, I understand the situation but should the penalty between consenting adults of any age be the equivalent of a homicide?

Terminate? Sure.

Misdemeanor with jail time attached? Okay.

Obviously we don’t know the age of the student but I suspect that if the student was a child, it would have been mentioned and Sexual Assault/Child would likely have been filed. 

[mat]

Another example. A teacher or a coach likes young girls/women and has daily access to hundreds of students a every day. Access to students in an institution that should be committed to the students protection. This teacher/coach has daily opportunity to pick and groom the vulnerable. Hard to draw a line between two scenarios. The teacher knows the law and consequences before entering the profession. 

[tvc184]

19 minutes ago, mat said:

I can understand your argument that the law may need some tweaking but I don’t see how your examples relate to this story. She is 32 and I didn’t see his age. I do understand and agree with the law in general to help protect out children from predators in the school system. 

Like a lot of laws, it is political nonsense.

Beat up your neighbor without serious injuries (broken bones, put out eye, etc) and it is a misdemeanor. A few months later, you do it again and it is still a misdemeanor. After you serve about a month in the County Jail, you get out and beat up the neighbor on the other side of you. It was still a misdemeanor. A couple of months later you beat up the guy across the street because like everybody in the neighborhood has found out, you have a bad attitude. But…, it is still a misdemeanor. You lose no federal gun possession rights. 

Slap your wife on the cheek (no bruise, no busted lip and so on)  after she has provoked you all day and you have become the equivalent of a felon and can no longer lawfully possess a firearm.

You can routinely beat the heck out of a dozen people with black eyes and busted noses and lips and it is a minor crime. If you went to college and lived in a dorm with a guy, if you met up 20 years later and got mad and slap him (no injuries other than pain) and you again have the status of a convicted felon. Is this political or really protecting the community?

Assault every person in your neighborhood and it’s all misdemeanors. Slap a former roommate from a couple of decades ago and you now have felony status as far as possessing firearms.

Does that make any sense? 

[tvc184]

Just now, mat said:

Another example. A teacher or a coach likes young girls/women and has daily access to hundreds of students a every day. Access to students in an institution that should be committed to the students protection. This teacher/coach has daily opportunity to pick and groom the vulnerable. Hard to draw a line between two scenarios. The teacher knows the law and consequences before entering the profession. 

Yes the teacher knows. Does that justify the penalty?

How do groom an adult? Maybe I need to take notes  

Another stupid law as an example (which happened to a local  police officer maybe 15 years ago.

 I think he was about 22 and had a 17 year old girlfriend. The ended up in an intimate relationship which is/was completely legal. At some point they took photos together in less than a fully clothed condition. He was then convicted of a felony. Why? Because at 17 she was an adult and could agree to any sexual act with consent but photographs are a felony until her 18th birthday. Make sense?

 And get this, both are adults and both could possess the exact same photo that they both agreed to take but only he is a felon. He is 18 or older so her possessing photos of him is no crime.

There are some stupid laws on the books to make people feel good but don’t make sense.

 

[LumRaiderFan]

20 minutes ago, tvc184 said:

Like a lot of laws, it is political nonsense.

Beat up your neighbor without serious injuries (broken bones, put out eye, etc) and it is a misdemeanor. A few months later, you do it again and it is still a misdemeanor. After you serve about a month in the County Jail, you get out and beat up the neighbor on the other side of you. It was still a misdemeanor. A couple of months later you beat up the guy across the street because like everybody in the neighborhood has found out, you have a bad attitude. But…, it is still a misdemeanor. You lose no federal gun possession rights. 

Slap your wife on the cheek (no bruise, no busted lip and so on)  after she has provoked you all day and you have become the equivalent of a felon and can no longer lawfully possess a firearm.

You can routinely beat the heck out of a dozen people with black eyes and busted noses and lips and it is a minor crime. If you went to college and lived in a dorm with a guy, if you met up 20 years later and got mad and slap him (no injuries other than pain) and you again have the status of a convicted felon. Is this political or really protecting the community?

Assault every person in your neighborhood and it’s all misdemeanors. Slap a former roommate from a couple of decades ago and you now have felony status as far as possessing firearms.

Does that make any sense? 

How does the law distinguish between these two scenarios?  Not doubting it but I don’t understand what makes the roommate situation a felony.

[mat]

We could go on all day about unfair laws and split hairs about scenarios. I can agree with many unfair laws. We are willing to trade an arms dealer to free someone on marijuana charges. Shouldn’t we free Americans in prison for the same type offense?

You may want to ask a predator how they can groom a vulnerable seventeen year old with low self esteem. While you view a seventeen year old mature enough to engage in a consensual relationship with a teacher, our laws do not consider them mature enough to drink or smoke or purchase either.

If we are going one way or the another on stupid or unfair laws I would lean more to the protection of the student rather than an adult that should know better.

Once again, I would have no problem if some laws were tweaked to be more fair on the side common since. 

[tvc184]

4 hours ago, LumRaiderFan said:

How does the law distinguish between these two scenarios?  Not doubting it but I don’t understand what makes the roommate situation a felony.

Because the politically correct laws on Family (domestic in other states) Violence (FV). A family member is a person you are married to or were formerly married, a person you have had a baby with, a roommate, a former roommate, a person you have dated and had a continuing romantic or intimate relationship with or a former dating partner. 

Each of those under Texas law is under FV.

Specifically under the roommate and former roommates, it is legally called a member of a household. This is the legal definition of roommates or however we wish to describe them. Notice that they do not have to be related AND it includes people “previously” (former) having lived together. 

Sec. 71.005. HOUSEHOLD. "Household" means a unit composed of persons living together in the same dwelling, without regard to whether they are related to each other.

Sec. 71.006. MEMBER OF A HOUSEHOLD. "Member of a household" includes a person who previously lived in a household.

Under federal gun laws, a person convicted of a felony can not possess a firearm. They added in domestic or (in Texas) family violence. So slapping a former roommate (with a misdemeanor conviction) carries the same lifetime ban of firearm possession as if it was a felony.

Oh yeah, if you slap a former roommate or girlfriend and are convicted of assault, to do it again years later is a felony.

So a guy played college sports. Twenty years later he get mad while drinking and punches his dorm roommate. His buddy is mad and files charges. About 5 years later the same guy has a relationship with a girlfriend. She has an argument with him and is screaming in his ear and he shoves her away. It isn’t intentional but she slips and scratches her knee. That accidental very minor injury is a felony. 

[LumRaiderFan]

6 hours ago, tvc184 said:

Because the politically correct laws on Family (domestic in other states) Violence (FV). A family member is a person you are married to or were formerly married, a person you have had a baby with, a roommate, a former roommate, a person you have dated and had a continuing romantic or intimate relationship with or a former dating partner. 

Each of those under Texas law is under FV.

Specifically under the roommate and former roommates, it is legally called a member of a household. This is the legal definition of roommates or however we wish to describe them. Notice that they do not have to be related AND it includes people “previously” (former) having lived together. 

Sec. 71.005. HOUSEHOLD. "Household" means a unit composed of persons living together in the same dwelling, without regard to whether they are related to each other.

Sec. 71.006. MEMBER OF A HOUSEHOLD. "Member of a household" includes a person who previously lived in a household.

Under federal gun laws, a person convicted of a felony can not possess a firearm. They added in domestic or (in Texas) family violence. So slapping a former roommate (with a misdemeanor conviction) carries the same lifetime ban of firearm possession as if it was a felony.

Oh yeah, if you slap a former roommate or girlfriend and are convicted of assault, to do it again years later is a felony.

So a guy played college sports. Twenty years later he get mad while drinking and punches his dorm roommate. His buddy is mad and files charges. About 5 years later the same guy has a relationship with a girlfriend. She has an argument with him and is screaming in his ear and he shoves her away. It isn’t intentional but she slips and scratches her knee. That accidental very minor injury is a felony. 

Thanks, and you’re right, that’s nuts.