Texas Law Makes Man's Relationship with 17-Year-Old a Felony
In Texas, the legal age of sexual consent is 17. You can get married when you're sixteen, as long as your parents give their approval. But, since 2003, when a sexual relationship occurs between a teacher and a student from the same school, the incident is considered a felony, regardless of the student's age.
Randy Arias, a 27-year-old Spanish teacher and track coach at W. Charles Akins High School in Austin, Texas, now faces felony charges and 20 years in prison because of his relationship with a 17-year-old student, according to the Associated Press.
It seems the two had gone on dates and begun and maintained a sexual relationship.
According to reports, the girl's mother legally consented to the marriage between her daughter and Arias four days before the teacher was arrested. The arrest, it seems, came after an anonymous caller tipped off police about the relationship.
But the law raises some important questions.
Arias apparently has no prior criminal record. If he were employed by a non-educational organization, his second-degree felony "crime" would have been completely legal. Reports indicate that two previous cases involving teacher-student relationships never went to trial because the so-called perpetrators were cleared of guilt by grand juries.
The director of governmental relations for the Texas District and County Attorneys Association has been quoted as saying that most cases like Arias's lead to probation for both parties when the suspect is convicted.
According to the Dallas Morning News, the law has drawn mixed reactions from those who have seen how it works. Those who support the law apparently feel that the power disparity inherent in teacher/student relationships makes the law necessary: students need to be protected from teachers who take advantage of their power to initiate sexual encounters.
Opponents, though, have evidently claimed that the law has good intentions but is too general and should be more nuanced to allow for the various circumstances under which student/teacher relationships might occur.
Sources indicate that some, for instance, believe the law should distinguish between students who consented to the sexual relationship and those who didn't. Others, it seems, think penalties should be less severe when the student is old enough to legally consent to sex.
The case of Randy Arias and his would-be wife highlights the interesting legal role that power and authority relationships can play in sexual encounters.
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