Debra Lafave: Beyond her case with double standards

I'm sure many have read and/or listened to news reports regarding the charges brought against a teacher Debra Lafave who was 23 at the time for having a sexual relationship with a 14 year old male student at the school where she was employed. It seems that the boys parents didn't want their son to testify so they were in favor of a plea agreement that the Judge refused to consider. The Judge's decision along with the parents refusal to have their son testify forced the procecuters to dismiss the charges against Lafave earlier this week.

I have read discussion about a double standard. I'm really not going to get into that at this point. What I'd like to acknowledge is that she definitely did know that her actions were wrong. She openly admitted to that in the beginning of all of this. Her comment "I know what I did was wrong" says it all. Sure a 14 year old boy will perhaps have a crush on an attractive teacher as so many of us have in our youth. However, she is the responsible authority figure that should have never pursued any sexual, intimate or even romantic encounter with this boy. Even if the boy pursued it first (which there is no evidence of this) this woman should have not surrendered to it.

I have some experience in this field and there are many people with Bi-Polar in the United States and some of them do have times when not being treated properly where they engage in risky behavior but at no time is their perception of right from wrong not available to them. They may have urges that could be hard for them to respond to negatively but they still know whether responding to the urge would be right or wrong. So therefore by legal standards I feel that a Bi-polar claim in order to excuse her from guilt here is very misguided.

Another point that came to me today is that we feel that this woman was wrong in sexually enticing this young boy. I agree that she most definitely was wrong and her actions should require punishment. However, we excuse the behavior of commercials being broadcast which do the same thing. Couldn't the Pizza Hut commercial starring Jessica Simpson walking in all sexy and hot going up to a very young boy in a seductive manner be viewed as enticement? I think society better take a close look at things and stop this steady decline in morality before more and more children and young adults are placed in harms way.