Comments Elsewhere

Kennedy:

If anything it’s vice. Scbools should be free to ban her as the see fit and that’s about the end of it.

Well, it’s clear that wildly unethical sexual conduct with students is, by itself, just a vice, not a crime. It’s not nearly so clear that adults sleeping with 8th graders ought to be considered merely a vice; if you think that the youth of one of the “partners” and the age difference between them substantially undermines the ability to give consent, then the adult would be guilty of rape.

I happen to think that it ought to be considered criminal, but there are understandable arguments to the contrary; questions of consent, childhood, and adolescence are usually pretty vexed. The point, though, is there are good reasons to consider it vicious no matter what answer you give to the question of whether or not it ought to be considered criminal (because it’s sleazy and exploitative).