Equal penalties for sex offenders

Another teacher has been caught teaching more than the basics - this time, in Florida. It's a familiar story - a female teacher gets caught having sex with a male student. But the real story is: the punishment doesn't fit the crime. Women are often given a slap on the wrist for this kind of behavior.

That's unjust.

In 2004, when middle school teacher Debra Lafave, 25, had sex with one of her 14-year-old students, she immediately blamed her mental state for the crime.

At a news conference in Tampa, Fla., Lafave said she has bipolar disease and her ongoing relationship with the student was the result of the disease, as reported March 22 by www.msnbc.com.

"I want the world to see that bipolar is real," she said. Nonetheless, she was charged in the two counties where she and the boy had sex.

In the end, Lafave received three years of community service and seven years of probation in one county.

The District Attorney dropped the charges in the other county after a plea deal in which Lafave would have received no jail time was rejected by the judge in the case. The victim's mother said her son couldn't emotionally withstand a trial.

My question is: why did the DA offer a plea agreement that included no jail time? Had she been a man and the victim a 14-year-old girl, would that same plea agreement have been offered?

This is totally unjust.

When a man is convicted of having sex with an underage girl, he is typically sent to prison. When a woman is charged with and convicted of having sex with an underage male, it's often treated as though she just needs therapy. Words like "bipolar," "mental instability" and "breakdown" are heard.

Bipolar Disorder (manic-depressive illness) affects close to two million adults in the United States according to the National Institute of Mental Health.

The website stated side effects include being easily annoyed, angry mood, and abrupt swings of mood and energy. Nowhere does information about the disease back up Lafave's statement of why she had sex with one her students.

Sex abuse Therapist Karen Duncan said there seems to be a myth that young men are not being abused. "It's like every 14-year-old boy's dream is to have an older woman and have sex with her," Duncan said, according to www.tbo.com.

In reality, 38 percent of convicted sex abusers are women, she said. Their male victims often suffer depression, anxiety and later have trouble trusting women emotionally, sexually and financially.

"It's not sexuality she has introduced him to, she has introduced him to sexual abuse," she said.

Lafave should be held accountable for this crime no matter what her gender is. That's the only way to keep children safe.

-John Savage
Staff Writer