Originally published at: Only 60 days jail for teacher who "continuously abused" 13-year-old student | Boing Boing
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Ah, Texas. Soft on horrible crimes, extra harsh on bullshit crimes.
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Probably the ideas that “boys want it”, that “I’d fuck that”, that the kid was lucky” and so on drove the judge to this travesty. It’s remarkably difficult to get people to understand that boys can be abused by adult women. By men, that they grasp as abuse. By women, not so much, especially if the boy is pubescent. If the woman is considered desirable by the men in the room, the idea that this was sexual abuse is almost impossible for them to agree with.
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If I think (far) back to my screwed-up teenage self, I can only imagine how much more screwed up I would have been if some twisted adult had decided to have a sexual relationship with me. And not just while it was happening. This would lead to a lifetime of misery.
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Now, why in the world would you say that? Oh, right, because of ample evidence.
5 years for casting a provisional ballot while on probation for a non-violent crime.
FIVE. YEARS.
But an actual child molester gets 60 days. Texas is just terrible.
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But wait, there’s more!
She also doesn’t need to show up for her term for a whole year. What’s the extenuating circumstance, you may ask?
She has a baby.
How often have we seen that “I’ve got a kid” has failed to move the needle for non-whites? I’ve stopped counting.
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Surely you aren’t implying that anyone would have a baby to elicit sympathy and leniency?
SURELY? What sort of monster would do such a thing?
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South Park did an episode on that societal attitude a while back. Kyle discovers that his baby brother Ike is being abused by his attractive teacher but can’t get the police to respond seriously because they see it as the kid just being very lucky. Later when they’re eventually forced to try for an arrest they’re super apologetic to the teacher and stressing how if it were up to them they’d totally let her go. I wish that it were more of a parody but that episode was probably more true-to-life than most.
Edit to add: it wasn’t long ago that popular sitcoms including Frasier and The Drew Carey Show had episodes where the main characters were thinking back fondly on sexual relationships they had had with their music teachers when still underage. And it somehow wasn’t treated as a totally unacceptable and illegal thing. I wonder if that’s because Kelsey Grammer turned out to be a right-wing nut job and Drew Carey is a libertarian activist
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After all, it’s not like other women don’t have babies in prison:
This practice has been banned in federal prisons, but states still set their own rules, so the fight against it continues:
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There might also be the sexist dichotomy where young women are thought to have no sexuality of their own. Sex is something that happens to them, and as such they can be more easily understood as victims. Whereas teenage boys are constantly full of raging hormones, meaning sex is something they do, which again could lessen the perceived culpability of the woman involved.
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If you haven’t read it already, ‘My dark Vanessa’ by Kate Elizabeth Russell is an equally fascinating and horrifying novel about a childhood warped by an expert groomer.
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QOP’er seem to see “grooming” everywhere they look, and yet…
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I guess that sentencing guidelines are not a feature of The Texas criminal justice system?
They are not a panacea, but do give all framework needed to identify the ranges of sentencing for offences, with the obviously high risk of challenge (and detailed explanations) if the bench deviates far from them.
They are central to my bench decisions.
https://www.sentencingcouncil.org.uk/offences/magistrates-court/item/sexual-activity-with-a-child/
You can click through to see how the catagories are built (it’s not a pleasant read) , and what aggravating and mitigating causes might be (these move you from the “Starting Point”)
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Even more disappointing coming from Carey considering that he himself went through a period of suicidal depression after being sexually abused at the age of nine.
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Admittedly, drawing the line between “unable to consent,” and “entitled to agency and privacy,” can be contentious. But this case checks off many of the boxes indicating “abuse.” Not just a legal minor, but 13 FFS. An adult in a position of authority (teacher). And a clearly emotionally manipulative and abusive relationship. She seriously needs to spend more time in jail.
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