The legal age of consent in South Carolina is 16. However, individuals as young as 14 years old are able to consent to have sex with a partner who is 18 years old or younger.
All those young men were at least 17.
Oh wow. So she's done absolutely nothing wrong here. How is this a story?!
She should be fired. I am not sure she deserves a felony though. Be different if they were under age.
I haven't read the statute, but there may be an exception for when the defendant is in a position of authority (i.e. teacher, priest, lawyer, etc.).
Most states do. I am saying I disagree with it in this case or really any case where the kid could have sex with anyone else and it would be cool.
You disagree with the idea that a
28 year old teacher having sex with his or her 28 year old student is distinguishable for criminal justice purposes from a random 28 year old having sex with a random 17 year old?
Yes?
Seriously though I understand why the distinction is there but I am not sure it should apply to adults having sex with adults. I mean
if a 17 year old can make the decision to have sex with another adult then that should be any adult. Is there a law that says a legal 17 year old can't have sex with their boss? No. The boss is still in a position of power over them though.
Oops, I meant "17 year old student" but I'm assuming you figured that out.
These issues are very fact and state specific. After all, in many states the age of consent is 18 so this particular scenario would be a crime no matter what. In others, if the person is in a position of authority the severity of the crime may be increased. Finally, as we have seen in South Carolina, it's a crime for a high school teacher to engage in sex with a high school student regardless of the age of consent.
FWIW I don't disagree with your thought process, but the reality is that teacher/student sexual relationships has become such an issue that lawmakers, for policy reasons, are doing more to single it out and try to deter it. I think the facts that every kid has to go to school with adult teachers (as opposed to a kid not be requiring to work a job with an adult boss) combined with the relative frequency that such sexual contact occurs distinguishes the teacher/student scenario from most others.
