Lawmakers in Washington state have proposed a new law which criminalizes sexual relationships between school employees and students. The move comes as a result of a state Court of Appeals decision (previously discussed here) finding that a law banning teachers from having sex with minors did not apply to 18-year-old students. From the Seattle Times:
The proposed law came shortly after the state Court of Appeals ruled that a former Hoquiam High School choir teacher accused of having an intimate relationship with an 18-year-old choir member could not be charged with sexual misconduct because the state law criminalizing teacher-student sex is unconstitutionally vague.
Rep. Larry Haler, R-Richland, introduced a bill last week that would prohibit teachers, coaches and other employees at elementary, junior-high and high schools from having sex with students between the ages of 16 and 21, as long as the student is at least five years younger than the employee.
A similar bill also has been introduced in the Senate.
The current law makes it illegal for school employees to have sex with students younger than 18.
The age of consent for a sexual relationship in Washington state is 16 unless the person involved is mentally incapacitated or disabled.
Under the teachers' professional code of conduct, teachers who have sexual contact with students also face losing their teaching certificate.
House Majority Leader Rep. Lynn Kessler, D-Hoquiam, said she supports the bill.
"If you want to have a love fest, go somewhere else — don't do it in the schools," Kessler said. "The idea is just because you're 18 it's OK if teachers prey on young women who are going to school there — it's just insane."
The Washington Education Association also favors the legislation.
"If teachers have sexual conduct with students they should not be teaching," said Rich Wood, spokesman for the Washington Education Association, the state's largest teachers union. "We take a very firm stance on that."
Haler is rewriting minor portions of his bill and expects to refile it this week. If passed, a school-district employee who has sex with a student between the ages of 16 and 21 could be convicted of first-degree sexual misconduct, a felony, and face up to five years in prison and $10,000 fine.
In 2001, then-Gov. Gary Locke vetoed a bill that would have made it illegal for a school-district employee to have sex with a student as old as 21 because the law was too broad and could be used to prosecute a teenage employee.
Robert Martin Morgan Hill, the Olympia attorney who represented former Hoquiam High School teacher Matthew Hirschfelder before the appeals court, criticized lawmakers for wanting to criminalize what he calls consensual sex between adults.
Hirschfelder was charged with first-degree sexual misconduct with a minor in the 2006 case. He denied he had a sexual relationship with the 18-year-old student but argued that even if the allegations were true, no crime was committed.
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