There is no liberal right to sex with students

Maya J. Goldenberg, Karen Houle, Monique Deveaux, Karyn L. Freedman, & Patricia Sheridan
The Times Higher Education
Originally posted May 4, 2017

There is a long and distinguished history of conceptualising liberal democracy in terms of basic rights to which, all other things being equal, everyone is entitled. Sexual freedom is rightly counted among these. But should this right apply where one person is in a position of power and authority over the other? Doctors are sanctioned if they have sex with their patients, as are lawyers who sleep with their clients. Should sexual relationships between professors and students in the same department also be off limits?

Neil McArthur thinks not. As Times Higher Education has reported, the associate professor of philosophy at the University of Manitoba, in Canada, recently published a paper criticising the spread of bans on such relationships. But we believe that his argument is flawed.

The article is here.

Arkansas court strikes down law banning teacher-student sex

By Douglas Stanglin
USA Today
Originally published March 30, 2012

The Arkansas Supreme Court has struck down a law banning sexual contact between teachers and students, saying people over 18 have a constitutional right to engage in a consensual sexual relationship.

In its ruling, the high court sided with David Paschal, 38, a history and psychology teacher at Elkins High School who is serving a 30-year prison sentence after admitting to having a five-month consensual sexual relationship with an 18-year-old student, the Associated Press reports.

READ: The court's full decision.

Chief Justice Jim Hannhan wrote that the law on sexual contact between students under 21 and public school employees such as teachers, coaches and principals "criminalizes sexual conduct between adults."

The entire story is here.

LV teacher gets state prison for sex with student

By MCT Information Services

The Pocono Record

Originally published December 20, 2011

A former Allen High School teacher wept in anguish Tuesday as a Lehigh County judge shocked the woman and her supporters by sending her to state prison for having sex with a 17-year-old student on prom weekend.

Ms. Marvelli

Gabrielle Suzanne Marvelli, 39, of Quakertown looked stunned as Judge Maria L. Dantos sentenced her to nine months to five years in state prison. About 15 friends and family members cried and shook their heads as Marvelli, who had been free on bail, was led off to prison. Marvelli wept loudly.

"You violated everything that a teacher is supposed to be," Dantos told Marvelli moments before issuing the sentence.

Marvelli had been seeking probation. Instead she got the maximum sentence under the law.

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The student, a senior who Marvelli had previously taught, was a week shy of his 18th birthday and Marvelli was on the staff at Allen when the tryst occurred.

The entire story is here.

Former Utah teacher gets prison for sex with student

By Roxana Orellana
The Salt Lake Tribune
Originally published December 16, 2011

Former drama teacher Jeremy Flygare delivered a tearful apology for having a sexual relationship with a 17-year-old student. But the girl’s mother called Flygare’s statements just another performance from an actor who has manipulated others and lied.

Jeremy Flygare

"Your honor, please send him to prison. He has no fear for the law. Has no respect for kids," the victim’s mother said in court. "This is going to be on our family for life, not for like a year."

On Friday, Judge Thomas Kay sentenced Flygare to prison for up to 15 years.

Flygare, 33, was charged in 2nd District Court with three counts of first-degree felony rape, which is punishable by up to life in prison.

The story is here.

Ohio Teacher Convicted of Sex with Students

Stacy Schuler

LEBANON, Ohio — A high school teacher was convicted Thursday of having sex with five students, some of them football players, after a judge rejected an insanity defense that argued the teens took advantage of her.

Stacy Schuler was sentenced to a total of four years in prison for the encounters with the Mason High School students at her home in Springboro in southwest Ohio in 2010. She can ask a judge to free her from prison after six months.

The 33-year-old Schuler, who could have faced decades in prison, cried as she was handcuffed and led out of the courtroom.

The five teens testified that Schuler, a health and gym teacher, had been drinking alcohol at the time of the encounters and was a willing participant who initiated much of the contact. The teens were about 17 at the time. The age of consent in Ohio is 16, but it's illegal for a teacher to have sex with a student.

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Testimony from a defense psychologist had suggested that Schuler's medical and physical ailments, combined with her vegan diet and use of alcohol and an antidepressant, helped impair her ability to tell right from wrong.

A psychologist for the prosecution rebutted that testimony, saying that the use of alcohol does not meet the state standard for an insanity defense and that willingly getting drunk is not a legal defense for a crime.

The entire story can be found here.