The Written Word
for March 12, 2000

The case in Sechelt involving the 30 year old female teacher and the 17year old boy has tragic overtones to it.

There is no question but that the teacher behaved wrongly. Evidently she has confessed to that and has left to school and is doing private tutoring. She may indeed pay a much higher price than that. And as one observer said, what if this was a 30 year old man and a 17 year old girl? And, fair enough, there should be no distinction.

Yet there is and we all know it. For one thing we know that males tend to dominate with authority, not affection. That’s not universally true of course but the picture we usually have is the dominant male teacher and the slightly scared and overawed teenage girl doing things more out of fear than love. Moreover, it is very difficult for a woman to press her sexual demands on a boy the way a man can on a female. Those, I think, are self evident facts.

But for all that, this teacher was wrong and must be punished.

But in assessing that punishment don’t we have to look at more than just the punishment itself and the deterrent effect? Don’t we have to look at this particular case and see what it was all about?

What if these two people are in love? They are still, it seems, seeing each other. The lad is now 18 and in the eyes of some Canadian laws a man. He certainly would be a man if there was a war and the army wanted him. And he can vote in federal elections. Is it that unusual for an age difference of a dozen years? Even if the older is the female?

The answer of course is no. History is full of happy relations with significant age gaps. Perhaps this 17 year old was a very mature 17 year old – for all we know he may have been the aggressor in the relationship.

Why am I prattling on so?

Because while I, like all decent people, condemn the dominant teacher, or employer for that matter, taking sexual advantage of the weaker person … while I like you I’m sure condemn the predator … I have a soft spot in my heart where love is concerned. Amor omnia vincit the Romans said so aptly and maybe some times it even conquers rules which are quite properly set up to prevent domination by a person in authority.

The problems with these laws, of course, is that they presuppose that everyone under a certain age is an automatic victim and that everyone over is a predator. And the world just doesn’t work that neatly.

This case must be dealt with. And no doubt the law must be enforced. But I can only express the hope that if this indeed does involve two people in love, the law can and should show its lenient side that we see so often in serious cases of violence in our communities.