Teacher leaves wife and kids for high school student

[Red Lucy]

Yeah news flash, everyone manipulates. whoopdeedoo. Does this transcend basic mental and emotional development and make all manipulation equal? rofl

The child can just as easily manipulate the adult (if you don't believe me try raising kids and get back to me).

You're both a dumbass and a horrible parent if you allow a child to manipulate you.

Keyword, allow.

[Troll]

It's about having a level playing field.

But it can never be level, such is the nature of power.

I disagree, as does the American justice system.

The first part is a valid reply, but the second part is irrelevent (that is the very issue in question here, and has already been acknowledged). It would be like saying "I think marijuana should be legal in Georgia" and you reply "Georgia law disagrees." It demonstrates that you don't really understand the discussion, nor did you carefully read the statement (should be, not is).

There is special protection given to at-risk groups all across the American justice system. It's not like this is even some nebulous law that's hard to predict. Don't fuck 17 year olds if you're 50. Would you rather not inconvenience a few dozen old people wanting to bang teenagers, and ensure that the rest will be protected from predatory adults?

I reject the notion that 17 year olds necessarily require "protection" from "predatory" adults. I reject your silly assertion that someone who is 17 + 360 days requires "protection" from "predatory adults" whereas a week later the "child" magically becomes an "adult" that no longer requires protection and is suddenly able to understand what sex is. The idea itself is mad.

This is utter bs. Unless the adult is mentally retarded they are not on the same level as children. (Hint: This is why they say some special needs people have developed "to the level of a 13 year old".)

That's not what I said. I said children can manipulate children just as easily as adults can. Your argument involves the alleged reduced mental capacity of children, but doesn't really address what happens if both are children. What if we have a mature child and an immature child that are the same age? Or let's say it's 17 and 14. I had an older brother convince me that you would die if you smoked weed, so this bs that you're talking about adults having a greater impact on young minds than other children is bs too. In my experience other people my age were a much greater influence than adults.

Plus I've already destroyed this logic. You see no problem with an 20 year old and a 17 year old, but you have a problem with 40 year old and a 17 year old. By your logic this shouldn't matter, because in both cases we have an "adult" and a "child."

That's the hard thing about mental development. Muscles and physical well-being we can measure fairly easily. It's not the same for development of a child's mind.

Exactly, which is why that should be determined objectively and not based upon an arbitrary number.

Again, utter bs, and the manipulation children effect upon adults is shallow. It contains none of the complexity that someone with a fully developed brain can bring to bear on a fresh mind.

Quantify this "complexity."

Call me a broken record, but there are already numerous examples of this in our society. Someone not of legal age cannot enter into a binding legal contract. That is not, after it has been reviewed to see if it was favorable for one side or the other, but just can't do it. You act as if this isn't the case, and I don't understand why.

Citing other examples of age discrimination doesn't really help your argument.

Or perhaps because studies have shown strong correlations between younger starting age of sexual activity and mental and emotional health issues later in life, and the same thing the larger the gap in age between sexual partners if one of them is in the early mid-teens.

Let's see these studies, this is not common knowledge.

I guess the bottom line for me is that if you don't have anything other than your refusal to believe that children can be manipulated to their detriment by adults, we can stop having this conversation right now. I'm not going to bend on those points because there's no science to indicate I should.

Children can also be manipulated by other children, so why shouldn't underage sex be outlawed alltogether in that case? And why do you make exceptions based upon the age of the alleged perpetrator?