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'I'm the victim,' says teacher who had sex with high school student

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Is it statutory rape if two underage people (say both are 16) have sex? What if they've been together for 3 years, then one of them turns 18 first. Is it still statutory rape until the other turns 18 despite history?
 
I don't think anyone is attacking it as pedophilia since being attracted to a 17-year-old is not even close.

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Squalor

Junior Member
Is it statutory rape if two underage people (say both are 16) have sex? What if they've been together for 3 years, then one of them turns 18 first. Is it still statutory rape until the other turns 18 despite history?
No. You're forgetting age of consent.

It's different state to state, but in a lot of places, it's 16 and 17. A couple of states have it at 15 still, I believe.
 

Cat Party

Member
The age difference is not the problem. People in positions of authority cannot get into sexual relationships with the people they have authority over.
 
No. You're forgetting age of consent.

It's different state to state, but in a lot of places, it's 16 and 17. A couple of states have it at 15 still, I believe.

There's also "Romeo and Juliet" clauses in a lot of these state laws that make exceptions. For example, in Iowa (where this happened), females (?) can consent at age 14 instead of 16 as long as the other person is no more than five years older.
 

Aureon

Please do not let me serve on a jury. I am actually a crazy person.
Eh, 17yos can give consent, and this isn't actually the case "power dynamics" laws are meant to be applied to, but the law is the law, and weakening the "power dynamics" laws is a bad idea.
So, yeah. Actually a victim, of a law technicality. She should've damn known better though.
 

Cels

Member
"i exploit my authority to have sex with students under my supervision", says former teacher who now works as a stripper
 
Where are you getting this information from? It's not in the OP and that's what people are reacting to. No one is going on the pedophilia angle. If what you say is true, it totally changed the story and it sucks for her.

There was a more detailed article I found on tumblr that googling about doesn't reveal. I'll understand if you guys are skeptical, though I do hope you at least do your due dilligence.

The linked article is short on details but they do eventually give some of the exculpatory facts. The penultimate paragraph reports on the blackmail, where no one will read it, and they significantly underplay it, but it's there.

"i exploit my authority to have sex with students under my supervision", says former teacher who now works as a stripper

I sincerely hope you get forced into survival sex work after an abusive partner ruins your career.
 

kswiston

Member
I sort of mentioned it earlier, but it's against the law for teachers to have sex with 18 year old students in Iowa as well.

This is an abuse of power charge, not an age of consent charge.

If that expanded story posted a few posts up is true, I do feel sympathetic for her. However, as a teacher, you shouldn't be sleeping with high school students at any school/district. Being over the age of consent doesn't matter. I know that teachers have been disciplined/fired for doing that in Ontario.

I won't speak to criminal charges, especially if the story is unclear, but she most definitely deserved to lose her job and teaching license.
 
I sort of mentioned it earlier, but it's against the law for teachers to have sex with 18 year old students in Iowa as well.

This is an abuse of power charge, not an age of consent charge.

If that expanded story posted a few posts up is true, I do feel sympathetic for her. However, as a teacher, you shouldn't be sleeping with high school students at any school/district. Being over the age of consent doesn't matter. I know that teachers have been disciplined/fired for doing that in Ontario.

I won't speak to criminal charges, especially if the story is unclear, but she most definitely deserved to lose her job and teaching license.

Not, as far as I know, if you're not in their district.

If that is the letter of the law, it's honestly pretty absurd.

And even if you don't buy that, enabling an abuser and forcing her into survival sex work is nowhere near a proportionate response.
 

Sai-kun

Banned
There was a more detailed article I found on tumblr that googling about doesn't reveal. I'll understand if you guys are skeptical, though I do hope you at least do your due dilligence.

The linked article is short on details but they do eventually give some of the exculpatory facts. The penultimate paragraph reports on the blackmail, where no one will read it, and they significantly underplay it, but it's there.

So...post it?
 

shamanick

Member
There was a more detailed article I found on tumblr that googling about doesn't reveal. I'll understand if you guys are skeptical, though I do hope you at least do your due dilligence.

The linked article is short on details but they do eventually give some of the exculpatory facts. The penultimate paragraph reports on the blackmail, where no one will read it, and they significantly underplay it, but it's there.

I think you're referring to the antepenultimate paragraph in which the student reportedly says that he will "burn down her life" if she breaks up with him. Is this condemnable in this type of a relationship with a clearly imbalanced power dynamic? Is it unreasonable to think that if the genders were reversed, the female student may say something similar? I'm not sure how this proves that the teacher was the victim in this situation.
 

Syriel

Member
I heard about this. They seriously buried the lede.

-He was 17. That's over the age of consent there.
-She wasn't teaching in his school district when they started the relationship.
-She tried to break things off when she got transferred to his school
-...At which point he blackmailed her into staying, saying something to the effects of "I'm going to piss on the cinders of your life."

Blackmail is illegal. Having sex with a 17 year old is not, even if it's pretty stupid.

This hysteria is getting pretty out of control. I'm starting to think if he raped her at gunpoint you'd still be calling her a pedo.

This isn't just sexual assault or inappropriate. She was raped. Over, and over, by someone who had threatened to ruin her life, by someone who was verbally abusive. Now she has to deal with people who are quicker to rush to condemnation than get all the facts, and her career is over. I can only imagine what the past few months have been like for her in that situation, and to have it compounded by awful media coverage like this.

I sincerely hope she manages to get back on track. I definitely hope the boy winds up in jail for this.

And if you guys think victim blaming her is appropriate, I really don't know what to tell you. Maybe start prioritizing your feminism over signalling your distaste of pedophilia.

Have a source for those claims? Because multiple news stories claim they first met when she was working in his school.

NY Daily News said:
Haglin and the teen met last year at Cedar Rapids’ Washington High School when she served as a student teacher in one of his classes. They began chatting through Facebook and text messages last September, and the teen continuously badgered her, asking her to meet up for lunch or coffee, she said.

And things progressed once she started subbing in his class.

NY Daily News said:
When Haglin began substituting in one of the boy’s classes, he sent her romantic test messages and left flirty Post-It notes on her desk, she claimed.

She quickly forgot about his age because she was so enamored with the sweet talk, she said.

“He did so with such intelligence and such an elevated vocabulary, that I was completely duped by the whole façade," she said.

Their relationship turned physical — but she insisted that the underage student initiated all sexual contact.

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/iowa-sex-student-victim-article-1.2838121

The only report of the threat seems to be her quote from the show. Claiming she continued the relationship because she was afraid it would be revealed (and ruin her life) kinda proves she knew it was wrong.

I sincerely hope you get forced into survival sex work after an abusive partner ruins your career.

It was other students seeing her and the teen having sex in her car at the park and reporting it that ruined her career.

Trying to blame her decision to start a relationship with a student on said student is a textbook case of victim blaming.
 
So...post it?

I can't find the tumblr article, and honestly, if you can't be arsed to go check the linked article it's not my responsibility to educate you.

I think you're referring to the antepenultimate paragraph in which the student reportedly says that he will "burn down her life" if she breaks up with him. Is this condemnable in this type of a relationship with a clearly imbalanced power dynamic? Is it unreasonable to think that if the genders were reversed, the female student may say something similar? I'm not sure how this proves that the teacher was the victim in this situation.

Yeah, that's what I was referring to. That's what I mean about them downplaying it; in the other article he's quite explicit that he means reporting her and ending her career... which might be appropriate if he were trying to end things, but he was doing it to force her to stay. If you don't think that's blackmail, it's not my job to walk you through the model penal code one line at a time.

There was a power imbalance, yes. Benefiting the person that had the power to blackmail one party and threaten her career. Not the teacher that was working twenty miles away until he blackmailed her.

Think I'm done here. Enjoy living in a world where blackmail is okay if you're young enough.
 

Maximus.

Member
She's not the victim. She knew what position she was in with a student and knew the age differences. Her current career choice switch may be an indication of her maturity. I mean yes it does suck to have such a negative image, but she made that choice by taking that risk and got off lucky in court.
 

MrToughPants

Brian Burke punched my mom
Not, as far as I know, if you're not in their district.

If that is the letter of the law, it's honestly pretty absurd.

And even if you don't buy that, enabling an abuser and forcing her into survival sex work is nowhere near a proportionate response.

How was she forced?
 

Sai-kun

Banned
I can't find the tumblr article, and honestly, if you can't be arsed to go check the linked article it's not my responsibility to educate you.



Yeah, that's what I was referring to. That's what I mean about them downplaying it; in the other article he's quite explicit that he means reporting her and ending her career... which might be appropriate if he were trying to end things, but he was doing it to force her to stay. If you don't think that's blackmail, it's not my job to walk you through the model penal code one line at a time.

There was a power imbalance, yes. Benefiting the person that had the power to blackmail one party and threaten her career. Not the teacher that was working twenty miles away until he blackmailed her.

Think I'm done here. Enjoy living in a world where blackmail is okay if you're young enough.

as much as i love to play the 'it's not my job to educate you!!!' card all the fucking time, if you post shit, the onus is on you to provide a source, not to make others go digging for it. learn to post.
 

Cipherr

Member
Think I'm done here. Enjoy living in a world where blackmail is okay if you're young enough.

hwchEhh.gif


The onus will always be on you to provide citations when saying stuff that isn't included in the reports on the story. That's a ongoing thing all over this forum; you are better off not posting in the first place if that bothers you.
 

tkscz

Member
Why would she be charged with rape? Does consent not matter at all in the US if it's 18+ having sex with under 18?



Edit: Avocado?

Correct. If they are older than 18 having sex with a minor, it's still consider statutory in most US states. Some states let it slide if they are 16 and have parent permission, most states do not.
 
Correct. If they are older than 18 having sex with a minor, it's still consider statutory in most US states. Some states let it slide if they are 16 and have parent permission, most states do not.

That's not true, the most common age of consent in the USA is 16, period. Including in Iowa, where this happened. Age was not a factor in this case.
 

shamanick

Member
This line of argument is clearly sexist. If the genders were reversed and the female student threatened retaliation most would be cheering her on, not victim blaming.
 

big ander

Member
I can't find the tumblr article, and honestly, if you can't be arsed to go check the linked article it's not my responsibility to educate you.



Yeah, that's what I was referring to. That's what I mean about them downplaying it; in the other article he's quite explicit that he means reporting her and ending her career... which might be appropriate if he were trying to end things, but he was doing it to force her to stay. If you don't think that's blackmail, it's not my job to walk you through the model penal code one line at a time.

There was a power imbalance, yes. Benefiting the person that had the power to blackmail one party and threaten her career. Not the teacher that was working twenty miles away until he blackmailed her.

Think I'm done here. Enjoy living in a world where blackmail is okay if you're young enough.
The power imbalance you're talking about only came about because the teacher, while in a position of power, acted unwisely and exploited her advantageous position. No teacher should enter into a relationship with a student unless they're prepared to take public responsibility for the relationship. She entered into a relationship with a student with full knowledge of the consequences. The teacher's irresponsibility lead to the situation where the student had the power to leverage her into staying in the relationship. Now I would also characterize that as psychological abuse, and thus blaming the continuing relationship on her is no good. Still, what she ideally would have done there was take the high road, break off the relationship and face any comeuppance. While it's understandably very difficult for an abused person to do that, that's what a capable authority figure would do. Instead she continued to lie. I wouldn't wish the psychological abuse and stress she faced on anybody but that fact remains that she broke the law and appears unfit to be in a position of power based on her actions.

I also don't think anybody is saying she should be forced into sex work as a result. It is possible to recognize her actions as misguided and have a distaste for how difficult it is in American society for those charged with crimes to obtain viable work.
 
Before switching majors, I was in a Teacher Education program in college. One of the things they emphasized over and over to us, in several classes, was to never get romantically involved with students, regardless of age or legality. It was drilled into us that relationships with students, beyond putting your career at risk, was an ethical violation in the practice. I ended up pursuing a different subject, but I can't imagine the later classes changed this message to, "Lol jk, get with students all you want."

If the allegations of the student threatening blackmail are true, that certainly adds some important context to this scenario. However, the teacher still made the conscious decision to violate the ethics of her field when she willfully entered into a relationship with the student. She is, at the very least, culpable for that ethics breach.
 
Teachers shouldn't have sex with Students. PERIOD.

even if he was a 23 year old who failed a few grades and she was a 21 year old fresh out of college teacher.
 

grandjedi6

Master of the Google Search
It's horrible but this story has had plenty of plot twists to it:

  • The school tried to cover it up which got the Principal and others fired.
  • Because they tried covering it up, the school's hiring department was unaware and ended up rehiring her as an Elementary substitute teacher for a while
  • She ended up turning herself in and telling the local news about it on her own initiative. Also her general demeanor and how she dressed up for it made it seem that she was rather excited for it.
  • She then got hired by the local strip club as Bambi, where I hear she's been rather popular
  • She got thrown back in jail for a bit for violating her no contact order by meeting the student at said local strip club
  • She sent Inside Edition sexy pics of herself that she had sent to the kid on her own volition.
  • Her story has been getting more and more elaborate (and crazy) as bigger press outlets talk to her
  • And now she's on Dr. Phil

She absolutely committed a crime and should be punished appropriately. But the girl obviously has something wrong with her and is doing whatever she can to get more and more attention. I can't imagine the dark spiral her life is about to go in when the national media gets bored of her and she stops getting the attention she craves.

But again, it's pretty much all self inflicted. Teachers shouldn't get involved with their students no matter the age differences.
 

Dali

Member
guys please explain the avocado thing i am begging you
"You're a peach" is a common expression of someone being nice. It's swung around as a compliment and no one questions it but you'd never say it to someone you'd fuck. It's borderline condescending like "sweety."

He took the expression and turned it around. Like basically "bitch, don't count me out."
 

Fluvian

Banned
17 year old to 23 year old would be perfectly legal and fine here in England. God bless that kid he lived the life most of us dreamed of in school.

Poor woman did the nicest thing she could have possibly done and got convicted for it.
 

Lois_Lane

Member
17 year old to 23 year old would be perfectly legal and fine here in England. God bless that kid he lived the life most of us dreamed of in school.

Poor woman did the nicest thing she could have possibly done and got convicted for it.

What? So it's perfectly fine for teachers to hook up with students in Britain?
 
This happened in my hometown and I never heard about it! Weird. Not the HS I went to though.

"I'm the victim" is a weird way to handle this. Maybe she is trying to spin this off into some kind of a D list celebrity reality show career.
 

Symphonia

Banned
That's not true, the most common age of consent in the USA is 16, period. Including in Iowa, where this happened. Age was not a factor in this case.
Let's swap the gender roles for one second here, with an adult male teacher having sex with an underage female. Would you feel the same way then? What if it was your daughter? I imagine you'd want to kill the guy who had sex with her. So why should it be any different if the pervert in this case is a female teacher? It's not a case of girls will be girls. She's an adult. He's a child. Age was most definitely a factor.
 
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