Complicating the Simple...

SEATTLE — Washington state law does not bar teachers from having consensual sex with 18-year-old students, an appeals court ruled Tuesday in dismissing a case against a former high school choir teacher.

The teacher, Matthew Hirschfelder, was charged with first-degree sexual misconduct with a minor for allegedly having sex with a Hoquiam High School senior in 2006. He challenged a judge’s refusal to dismiss his case, arguing the student wasn’t a minor because she was 18.

Hirschfelder, who was 33 at the time, also denies any sexual relationship occurred.

A three-judge panel of the Washington Court of Appeals unanimously agreed that the case should be dismissed. While the law was written vaguely, a review of legislative history shows that lawmakers only intended to criminalize contact between teachers and 16- or 17-year-old students — not those over 18, the court said.

“The name of the statute is ‘sexual misconduct with a minor,’” said Hirschfelder’s attorney, Rob Hill, stressing that the state recognizes that an 18-year-old is no longer a minor.

The state’s code of professional conduct for teachers still prohibits any sexual advance toward or contact with pupils, whatever their age, and teachers can be fired for it. Sexual contact with students younger than 16 is considered child rape or molestation; the age of consent in Washington is 16.

Well...I'm not sure the law should dictate relationships if both participants are legally adults. However, the teacher/ student thing is an exception. The article does go onto point out:

The state’s code of professional conduct for teachers still prohibits any sexual advance toward or contact with pupils, whatever their age, and teachers can be fired for it.

CAN be fired for it? CAN!?!? How about...WILL be fired for it. Or...more to the point...MOST DEFINITELY WITHOUT A DOUBT GET HIS/HER POSTERIOR FIRED OUT THE DOOR WITH SUCH FORCE AND VELOCITY THAT LOCAL ASTRONOMERS WILL WONDER IF THEY HAVE DISCOVERED A NEW COMET PREVIOUSLY OVERLOOKED?

The lack of clarity on this issue is a result of the Washinton Education Association (WEA)...defending these "teachers" to the hilt.

Some state legislators are set on changing the law. On Monday, six state representatives introduced legislation that would make it a crime punishable by a mandatory minimum of five years in prison for a teacher to have sex with a student up to age 21, as long as the teacher is five years older than the student and at the same school.

Give a politician a hot button issue and a laptop and they complicate the hell out of everything. Here...use this:

"NO FREAKIN' SEX BETWEEN STUDENTS AND TEACHERS..."