High schooler expelled, charged with felony for lesbian love

[tabitha2]

i did not state any thing of the sort. now if the 16 year old was also an adult as happens in some place and was hooking up with the 19 year old it would still be squicky but legal and people could make excuses.what i meant was if they knew or found out later about someone, esp a legal adult, having sex with their 14 year old daughter and turned a blind eye they would not be responsible parents in my mind . if that is judgement to you so be it; i guess i'll be judgemental :|

[Lainey]

I find this strange. When I was 14, I would have happily had sex with a 19-year-old man that I fell for. And it would have been legal where I live:

The age of consent in Alberta is the same as all over Canada:

If you are 12 or 13 you can consent to have sex with someone no more than two years older.

If you are 14 or 15 you can consent to have sex with someone no more than 5 years older (unless the two people are married).

The older person can NOT be a teacher, parent, guardian, doctor, etc.

For everyone else the age of consent is 16. But if the older person is a teacher, parent, guardian, doctor, etc, then the age of consent is 18.

The age of consent for anal sex is 18 unless the two people are married. Gay and straight marriages have been legal in Canada since 2005.

Oh, I guess it changed in 2008. I wonder why?:

The age of consent in Canada is 14, unless the older person is in a position of authority.

As of 01 May 2008, the Age of Consent in Canada is now 16. However a major exemption is, sex between peers under 16 is okay, as long as neither is in a position of authority and they are 12 or older. Likewise, under a "close-in-age" provision, if a person under 16 (and 12 or older) has sex with someone less than five years older, they can be considered to have consented unless the older person is in a position of authority.

I don't know. It seems strange to me that the couple having sex was okay one day (before the older girl turned 18), and then all of a sudden, it was illegal.

[debrand]

Hunt-Smith wrote that the girls had started dating at the beginning of the school year, and that their "mutual consenting relationship" had been known to both parents for months prior to the arrest.

This is from a Huffington Post article on the subject.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/05/1 ... 02713.html

I'm confused. Were the parents fine with the relationship until the older girl turned 18? Did they try to prevent the two from being together prior to the older one's birthday? Did they not know about the relationship?

I wouldn't want my 14 year old dating a 17 year old but I would try to end the relationship before the older child reached 18

[Mela99]

Fantastic. Ruin a girl's life forever.

I don't wanna live on this planet anymore.

[tabitha2]

i would think she helped with that...being with minor and all.

[2xx1xy1JD]

Why the assumption they were having sex? Is it because they were a lesbian couple?

Guess what, we aren't all sex crazed maniacs. I dated a woman for 6mos and all we did was kiss. I saw NOTHING in the short article about sex. LGBT is not about sex, it's about attraction.

Question: Do all hetero couples at this age immediately jump in the sack?

Because generally speaking, you don't get charged with sexual battery if all you do is kiss.

If the law is applied the same way to hetero relationships, then this isn't a same-sex rights issue, but an age-of-consent issue.

[MajorMajor]

I find this strange. When I was 14, I would have happily had sex with a 19-year-old man that I fell for. And it would have been legal where I live:

Oh, I guess it changed in 2008. I wonder why?:

I don't know. It seems strange to me that the couple having sex was okay one day (before the older girl turned 18), and then all of a sudden, it was illegal.

That makes a lot more sense than the current laws in most American states. Add me to the camp of I don't think there is anything inherently wrong with the relationship as long as it was truly consensual. Teenagers have sex - and these two girls were teenagers. Yes legally the older girl was an adult, but hardly. Like another poster said, why is it legal one day, then illegal the next? The age difference didn't change.

[Buzzard]

Because generally speaking, you don't get charged with sexual battery if all you do is kiss.

If the law is applied the same way to hetero relationships, then this isn't a same-sex rights issue, but an age-of-consent issue.

Sexual battery can be contact with "intimate parts" which include boobs. I'm always very cautious about jumping to conclusions in criminal matters because the media is notoriously unreliable as far as spin and only bothering to read half the facts.

No doubt, male or female, sexual contact with a 14 year old is gonna get you some silver bracelets.

[Katiebug]

There is no evidence of sex and regardless, you stated her parents were irresponsible even if they were 16 and 19. That seems very much like judgement to me.

A prosecutor isn't going to leave an easy out for the defense attorney by pressing charges of this nature without having either evidence or a confession of sexual activity - the charges wouldn't stick. The younger girl's parents merely being suspicious of intimate contact would not be sufficient; the older girl didn't get charged with sexual battery for just making out with her girlfriend.

Often with heterosexual couples, the older boyfriend gets arrested when either a parent catches them in the act or the girl winds up pregnant.

As a parent, I would have a problem with my 14 year old dating a person 3 years older than him/her, and it doesn't matter what sexual orientation(s) are involved. There's a big difference between a three year age gap at 14/17 years old and 17/20 years old (for example). Then again, I don't think 14 year olds should be getting themselves into long term relationships or dating seriously to begin with.

[Diana]

Cases like that are the reason why a higher consent age is not that good, there are a lot of teens having sex at 13 and 14, and with the maturity for consent and there are people with 18 or 19 that are totally childish. So the age is not what differences love from abuse, the better way to control that is a better sexual education, and ofcourse always listening what the teen wants and not using the law for controlling their daughter.

[LostSamurai]

I definitely wouldn't be too happy with ANYONE messing with my 14 year old...but I also call bullshit.

I bet you all if this was a 18yr old male, they'd totally would be fine with this, but since its two females, it's "Throw her ass in jail for Staturtory Rape"

[lilith]

i did not state any thing of the sort. now if the 16 year old was also an adult as happens in some place and was hooking up with the 19 year old it would still be squicky but legal and people could make excuses.what i meant was if they knew or found out later about someone, esp a legal adult, having sex with their 14 year old daughter and turned a blind eye they would not be responsible parents in my mind . if that is judgement to you so be it; i guess i'll be judgemental :|

Seriously, you think a 16 year old hooking up with a nineteen year old is squicky? That describes a huge amount of people's early sexual experiences, both at 16 and 19.

I personally don't have an issue with a consensual relationship between a fourteen year old and a seventeen year old, whatever the sex or sexuality of either party, so long as it's consensual, and that would include my own children at that age. They were both teenagers in high school, that gives them a lot in common and puts them on a pretty equal footing. I don't recall the 17/ 18 year old year 12 boys I dated at 15 (in year 10) as in a position of power or authority or as anything but my peers.

[belly_button]

Fantastic. Ruin a girl's life forever.

I don't wanna live on this planet anymore.

Yep. We get a post card in the mail every so often, notifying us of the sex offender that lives two streets over. A picture and everything...he's 26 and the offense happened in 2005. which means he could have been 18, in a similar situation as this girl. Just the other day, my neighbor told me that I had to really keep my eyes on my girls because "they're such pretty children, that pervert might try to take them". :roll:

[bpobst]

I have a lot of issues with the article as there is so little information. In general though, most teens are already having sex and that includes those only 14 (or even younger). I know the statutes differ in each state, and I am not sure what they are in Florida but this is a big reason I think the system needs overhauling. We do not know how long these two people were dating and whether or not the parents knew or tried to shut down the relationship previously. I also think maturity differs person to person and if the parents were fine before but all of a sudden when the older one turned 18 they now have an issue with that then that seems a little suspicious. Remember, she has been charged with a crime, not convicted. We do not know the whole story.

doggie, why do you put in these inflammatory titles? The felony part is not about her being a lesbian. The felony part is about their age differences and age of consent according to state law. These laws apply to both hetero and gay couples, or are you saying that the law should not be applied here because the older teen is gay?

CelticGoddess, no, all heteros of those ages do not jump in the sack, but their relationships if not in the sack are called "friends" and not a "consensual relationship".

AreteJo, I had a few boyfriends in high school here and there and we were never sexually active but we considered ourselves a couple and so did everyone else. What would have been the correct terminology for our status since we weren't sleeping together but more than just friends?

[tuckerphez]

1. The HuffPo article said they had been dating since September and the 14yo's parents never warned the other girl's parents or even said they didn't want them dating. And all of the parents had known about the relationship since it had started.

2. Florida has a Romeo and Juliet law for minors that engage in consensual sex. This law keeps the older minor from being put on a sex offender registry and takes people who were convicted of similar offenses off the list. From http://www.westpalmcriminallawyers.com/ ... uliet-law/

Please note that you only can do this if you meet the very strict eligibility requirements:

You had sex of a consensual nature with a minor who was between the ages of 14 and 17;

You were a maximum of four years older than the minor person when you had consensual sex;

You were convicted of sexual battery, as described in Florida Statute 794.011, or lewd and lascivious offense, as described in Florida Statute 800.04;

You have to register as a sex offender ONLY because of the offense described above; and

You have not been convicted of any other sex-related crimes in your life.

The girl in question fulfills all of these requirements. However, a judge has to grant this exemption, and their have been cases where same-sex couples have been said not to qualify for Romeo and Juliet laws.

[tuckerphez]

Also this debacle reminds me of the conversation I once had with a friend about how age of consent laws are such a crapshoot and we should have teenagers take a test about safe and consensual sex and then get a license that says they are allowed to have sex.

Then we said it would be really awkward to enforce.

[Arete]

No joke, consent laws should be covered in sex ed classes in the public schools, right up there with menstrual cycles, birth control, and safe sex. These kids really should be taught the law in their individual states, but some parents would probably raise morality objections to that as well. :roll:

[Maia68]

I know I told my son and his friends that they needed to look at driver's licenses. And I made it clear that it works with girls who have been with boys as well. It's a bad reason to have a sexton offender record.

[Coconut Flan]

Exactly parents in my opinion should cover the laws concerning sex with minors, curfews, and contributing to the delinquency of a minor with both their kids and the boyfriends and girlfriends of their kids.

[jjmennonite]

No joke, consent laws should be covered in sex ed classes in the public schools, right up there with menstrual cycles, birth control, and safe sex. These kids really should be taught the law in their individual states, but some parents would probably raise morality objections to that as well. :roll:

I think they are here - I am in Alberta, like Lainey. My boyfriend is a high school teacher and brings experts in to teach sex ed. From what he describes, the laws are covered, as is the inability of a drunk person to consent.

[Mama Mia]

No joke, consent laws should be covered in sex ed classes in the public schools, right up there with menstrual cycles, birth control, and safe sex. These kids really should be taught the law in their individual states, but some parents would probably raise morality objections to that as well. :roll:

If I had known the age of consent laws when I was a teen it just would have told me what age to lie and say I was.

[Arete]

If I had known the age of consent laws when I was a teen it just would have told me what age to lie and say I was.

We tell them what age they are allowed to drink, to vote, to drive. This is no different. Kids lie about their ages to try and get into bars, but that isn't a reason they shouldn't be told what age they need to be to drink legally.

Take this case as an example. The younger girl did not lie about her age.

[tropaka]

I'm sure it's been said before, but the screen cap is a good backup for a boycott etc. for Tlc.

[2xx1xy1JD]

I find this strange. When I was 14, I would have happily had sex with a 19-year-old man that I fell for. And it would have been legal where I live:

Oh, I guess it changed in 2008. I wonder why?:

I don't know. It seems strange to me that the couple having sex was okay one day (before the older girl turned 18), and then all of a sudden, it was illegal.

The law in Canada was changed, because under the previous law, sex with 14 yr old teens was legal, regardless of the age of the other person, which left authorities powerless to stop some major child exploitation.

Close-in-age exceptions make sense, but they will always be somewhat arbitrary - it's just that the cut-off dates vary.

[tuckerphez]

Here's a post written by the father. It's all so sad.

http://www.xojane.com/issues/kaitlyn-hunt