Alright, this is absolutely one of my least favorite topics to write about, but since it has been grabbing a lot of headlines lately, I figure we might as well get it over with. This is sort of like plane crashes. It happens only infrequently, but when it does it is guaranteed to grab national headlines. There is far more fear out there of sex-crazed teachers than there needs to be (this affects (reported cases) less than .01 percent of teachers per year). It also doesn't help that there is this national infatuation with this issue (for various nasty reasons I am not going to mention). But, let's deal with it anyway:
Let's start with the headlines.
Alright, those are the two big ones this week.
First, legally, there are a few different issues here and let's address each one briefly.
1. State Anti-Teacher Sex Laws: These state laws are becoming more and more popular and most states have adopted such a law or in some stage of the process of trying to get such a law. Obviously they vary in their provisions, but the general point is to prevent or prosecute teacher sexual abuse of students. Like the one in Washington they contain criminal penalties for teachers found guilty. As more and more states adopt these laws, local prosecutors will have another weapon with which to attack teachers that engage in sexual conduct with their students. --- As far as the Washington case, that is a clear example of the limits of these types of criminal laws. The law was written to protect "minors" - which does not include 18 years olds. Thus, that law cannot be used to prosecute that teacher. However, the teacher will lose his job, lose his license, and could be subject to civil actions (see below). And, since this case got so much attention, I would assume many states will either move that age up or just say students generally.
2. Statutory Rape Laws: These laws vary greatly across states, but generally criminalize sexual relationships with children in their teens, up to about age 16-18 (depending on the state). The recent trend has been to increase this age. While there are various loopholes and this is a complicated area of law, as a general rule teacher sexual abuse of students (other than perhaps seniors in high school as was the case in the news story above) will probably also amount to statutory rape, which has a lengthy prison sentence, among other punishments (including inclusion on the sex-offender list).
3. State Child Abuse Laws:Because we are talking minors and we are talking abuse, these laws kick in as well. Sexual abuse is a standard type of abuse defined in these statutes, so all the possible criminal ramifications contained under these laws can be brought to bear on the teacher. Here is a good national resource on Child Abuse, but check your state laws.
4. Teacher Dismissal Laws: Outside of state law violations for criminal conduct (above), there are also legal implications for a teacher keeping their job. Immorality is a teacher dismissal criteria in most states. With no exceptions, teachers can be fired for having sex with a student under these immorality state law provisions. A teacher that has sex with any student, even a student over 18, should immediately be fired, pending due process. The teacher should be placed on paid leave while the due process moves forward and as quickly as possible the Board of Education should issue a ruling firing the teacher.
5. State Teacher Certification Laws: A fifth legal issue related to teacher sex with students is state certification laws. Not only will teachers be fired 100% of the time for having sex with a student, but more often than not they will also lose their teaching license as well. An October 2008 report found that between 2001 and 2005, 2,570 teachers lost teaching credentials for sexual misconduct. Again this process involves due process and the teacher has a right to defend themselves to the state teacher certification board, but with adequate evidence teachers will almost always have their licenses revoked.
6. Various Tort Actions: All of the above address government punishment of teachers, but individual students can also sue teachers under various theories for assault, intentional infliction of emotional distress and others and recover substantial monetary damages against the teacher.
7. Child Abuse and Harassment Actions Against School or Other Employees: When teachers sexually abuse students, there is frequently more than just the offending teacher involved legally. Abused students have a private right of action to bring suits against schools if there were aware of the harassment and did nothing to stop it. Also, because this may amount to child abuse, the mandatory reporter laws kick in and other teachers that failed to report could face fines or prison time (and possible revocation of their teaching license as well).
Those are the big legal issues at play and, depending on the case, there might be others as well. But, you can see these are pretty complicated legal cases, but they always end with the teacher losing their job, probably losing their license, and probably going to jail for a while under various laws.
Second, ethically this is a no-brainer, obviously. Teachers, don't have sex with students. Don't even think about having sex with students. Don't even have flirtatious relationships with students. I feel like I don't even need to say that. Also, obviously, administrators and other teachers need to report this when they even have a hint that it is going on. Just like any other child abuse reporting, that is both their duty under the law and their moral obligation to protect students that may not be able to protect themselves.
But, with that out of the way, there are a lot of other less obvious ethical issues here. What is the ethics in pre-service teacher preparation not making future teachers aware of these legal ramifications of their actions? What's the ethical responsibility of state legislators, regulators, district personnel, school leaders and others? As part of their law, South Carolina instituted a sex-abuse prevention training program. Maybe that's worth looking into? And all those ethical questions need to be couched by remembering we are talking about an extremely small fraction of the teaching population that ever has problems on this issue.
Anyway, knowing the legal issues surrounding teacher sexual-abuse is a good place to start, if nothing else.