Vote totals:
Yes:
100%
No:
0%
Neutral:
0%
DEBATE: SHOULD PUPILS BE ALLOWED TO HAVE SEX WITH THEIR TEACHERS?
SHOULD PUPILS BE ALLOWED TO HAVE SEX WITH THEIR TEACHERS?
Anyone over 16 has the right to enter into a consensual sexual relationship
It should be clarified that we are talking about over 16 year olds here, no one underage.
Because once a person is 16 they’re allowed to vote, have sex (WERE allowed to smoke a while back) and gain other important adult rights. A 17 year old is able to decide whether entering into a sexual relationship is a wise move, so they should be presumed mature enough to sleep with teachers if they so wish.
While many ‘adult’ rights are obtained at 16, the law treats those who remain in in full time education until 18 as ‘dependants.’ They are not fully fledged adults, they are judged too immature to make political decisions by voting in elections. While sex is legal from the age of 16, the law is designed to prevent the criminalisation of young people whose hormones are driving them to experiment sexually. It is not a free pass for full grown adults, who should have enough judgement to see the error of a relationship with a pupil, to take advantage of the naivete of people who are essentially still children.
SHOULD PUPILS BE ALLOWED TO HAVE SEX WITH THEIR TEACHERS?
Sex is a natural development of any relationship
Unless you’re strictly religious then it is unlikely that you would wish to abstain from sex once you entered into a relationship. Sexual relationships are something people are able to deal with once they reach a certain age.
In most instances, adolescents would not be interested in having a serious relationship with a member of school staff; but for individuals who do start to form an attachment, it seems senseless to deprive them of an integral part of any relationship.
A teacher and pupil affair is very unlikely to develop into a stable relationship- the differences between their relative maturity levels and stages in life are too great. Their relationship is likely to be based purely on the physical rather than any mental/emotional attachment.
SHOULD PUPILS BE ALLOWED TO HAVE SEX WITH THEIR TEACHERS?
It’s a complicated relationship already.
The relationship between teacher and pupil is no more complex than that between a boss and employee or a tour guide and one of their group. Sexual relationships develop from these relationships all the time, and while some frown upon them for similar reasons to the ones expressed here, they are not censured by the law.
There is a reason why an exception to the age of consent rule exists. Teachers are placed in a unique position of trust in regards to their pupils’ welfare and development, influencing their future at a very important period in their life when they turn from children to adults.
Just because a person has turned 16 does not make them automatically equipped to deal with the emotional complications of a sexual relationship, especially with someone otherwise appointed to look after them and be a figure of authority. The power balance between a pupil and their teacher is very different from any other relationship they will have at any other time in their life.
SHOULD PUPILS BE ALLOWED TO HAVE SEX WITH THEIR TEACHERS?
It creates inequality
Any way in which a teacher is seen to be favourable to one pupil over another is a breach of professional standards; the reason for it does not matter. Teachers are not – unless you have no faith in the education system whatsoever – stupid. Those who break the rule of equal treatment for all would be punished anyway, whether it’s because they’re sleeping with the pupil or are best friends with the pupil’s parents.
There’s a reason why lecturers at university level are also advised against sleeping with their students: when an adult is responsible for the equal treatment of all their charges, it is a bad idea to throw sex into the equation.
If a pupil and their teacher enter a sexual relationship then it becomes increasingly difficult for the teacher to fulfill their role of equal treatment: their partner will be keen to get preferential treatment, and attempts to be even-handed will not help the relationship or the rest of the pupil body.
I have a question: are we talking about them having a sexual relationship *during* or *after* the teacher-student relationship has dissolved.
Because if we are talking about *after* then both of the counter-points above no longer apply. In that situation, the teacher no longer has authority over the student and the student no longer has fellow pupils who might be treated unequally.