I would like to point out, before you read the body of this article, I do not side with the people in this case. I think that it is interesting that since hte time of the case and the media uprise of pulbicity on the release from prison of Mary Kay Latourneau, that the issue has come full circle and came back with a vengence.
The television tells me that jsut a couple of days after her release, Mary Kay Latourneau, has hooked back up with the boy that got her put into jail in the first place.
When it all came down, Mary Kay was a teacher at a Washington State school, and she was in a relationship with a 12 year old student named Vili Fualaau. What made the case so shocking was that here was a woman, paid to educate and teach youth, and was sleeping with one of them.
First off, let me state, that is wrong!
Or is it?
Not only did they continue to see each other, she bore him children. How old was she? 34.
In canada, the legal age of consent is 18, but sexual activity can be granted as young as 14. Even if that was the case, that is still two years away from when the two of them started. What is a 34 year old woman doiung touching a child?
Promoting love, it would seem.
Love, something that can't be explained, was brought into this case. Twice, against the law, Mary Kay broke the order to stay away and spent time wiht her lover, then 14. Sentenced to 7 years in a woman's correctional facility, she bore his child.
Now, she is out. She has been out for a little while at the writing of this article. She has since gone back to her lover, now 21 and in respects, legal.
What I don't get is why she wasn't put away longer.
What is the difference, really, between molestation and consenting when you are that young? At 12, most children don't know what they are doing, and it is too young for someone to bring up that kind of situation to the forefront. Where were the men of Mary Kay's age? Why did she feel that little Villi was the one for her? Doesn't that suggest some kind of sickness?
On the television, she complains that she can't find work in her field again. Can you blame people? In the eyes of most people, what she did was wrong. There is no way around that. Now that the boy is a man and of consenting age, there is no issue. But the thought that a 34 year old woman and a 12 year old boy were having sex, that makes me sick.
How many other situations like this are going on in North America? This is one that we know of, but of the others? The secret ones that have stayed out of the spotlight? I think people like Mary Kay Latourneau should be puthe punished by the full extent of the law. In my eyes, she is no better than the priests that have been convicted of molesting children. Seven years was not enough.