UK- Unequal before the law

10-6-2008 United Kingdom:

On the surface, at least, the argument put by the teachers' representative, Chris Keates, looks controversial to the point of being outrageous. She has said, in a television programme to be aired tonight, that a law making it a criminal offence for a teacher to have a sexual relationship with a pupil over the age of 16 is anomalous. Rather than face prosecution, she contends, and almost automatic inclusion on the sex offenders' register, the teacher should face only professional sanction. Child protection agencies are up in arms.

The closer the facts are scrutinised, however, the more substance there appears to Ms Keates' point of view. The legal age of consent to sexual relations currently stands at 16. So while it is technically legal for a teacher and a pupil of that age to have a relationship, it becomes illegal only if the 16-year-old is a pupil at that particular school.

This is yet another example of a law enacted by this government not being properly thought through. The purpose is unimpeachable: to discourage teachers from having sexual relations with pupils for whom they are responsible and to protect minors in a situation where the power relationship is unequal. But the result, as Ms Keates notes, is that if the teacher has an affair with a 16- or 17-year-old at another school, the law has nothing to say about it and the sex offenders' register is neither here nor there. No one – at least no one party to this specific argument – is suggesting that it is a good idea for a teacher to have a sexual relationship with a pupil of any age. And where a pupil is under 16, the law is clear and applies equally to teachers and non-teachers.

What Ms Keates is saying is that the punishment for a teacher who has a relationship with a sixth-former – a criminal record and an entry on the sex offenders' register – makes teachers unequal before the law. She is right. The offence is moral and professional; it should preclude a continued career in teaching. But a criminal record as a sex offender is punishment too far. ..News Source.. by The Independent