OT - another coach that should be taken out and horsewhipped
 

When is this going to stop? :(

http://www.oregonlive.com/forest-gro...h_schoo_1.html

I don't understand what switch gets turned at 18 where then it's ok all of a sudden. Arbitrary age laws just seem...so arbitrary. Then there's the whole discussion about when is old enough.

With that said I find it hard to imagine there are NO legally aged women for this guy to pursue.

in Europe and other places the age of consent is lower but that being said a coach should never do that. High schools have to be careful and really watch that because a lot of these coaches tend to be younger.

age / 2 + 7

The specific age could certainly be argued but the laws often have an age differential element such that if the older person in the situation is less than 3 years older than the younger one, it is not a crime...that is, if the boy (usually the case) is 19 and the girl is 17, it is not against the law. But 17 and 21 is. They're trying to cover the maturity window and are saying that if you're that much older than the teen, you really should both know better and are old enough and mature enough to be able to inappropriately manipulate a teenager...but similar aged teens would not be.

Never.

We're a nation of 316 million people. That's a massive number, so to think that anything is never going to happen again is naive. That doesn't make it right, but don't count on it stopping.

+1

As bad as his behavior may have been, there's a lot going on here. The girl's mom was in favor of and encouraged the relationship with the coach...The mother "acted as a chaperone to help facilitate a quasi-dating relationship between the two. When confronted by police about the relationship, the mother told police, 'this is (expletive)' and 'age shouldn't matter.'"

Before we horsewhip this guy, we should probably bring the mother along for a few lashes as well.

Jeez Louise...where the hell are these people from? Appalachia?

Sorry, from this I thought the article was about a 20 y/o coach and a 17 y/o player or something. 30-16? That's not arbitrary. It's wrong, and he should know better regardless of how supportive her mother was.

Your response is wildly subjective and arbitrary. The argument isn't that there is an acceptable range, it's what is acceptable between the 2, and how do we define that age is the determining factor when it comes to certain decisions but not others.

We have laws based on what's best for a group but 20-16, 30-16, or even 60-16, as morally disgusting I may think that is projecting my values on others. If both parties understand the implications and make a lucid decision who cares. That's the basis of my comment. Is why do we make a big deal over arbitrarily designated values that are different based on the 2 involved.

In our case, for sexual contact, we have deemed 18 as the fail safe for when someone is "old" enough to do what they may want to with their body.

If this was 18-30, would you be ok with it? If so, what changed, besides the legality of the situation?

having lived overseas and seen people 16 dating men about 30, sure that could be ok...not that I would support it. But the MAIN issue here is the relationship can lead to abuse. You should never have a teacher or a coach involved with a student. I don't care what the age of consent rules are or if a parent wanted it; that is 100% wrong. High Schools need to be on watch for this because you have people developing sexually at this time and there could be mutual attraction especially with younger coaches. Once they are out of high school, I don't care.
If a coach is having a relationship with an 18 year-old senior player, I'd immediately fire the coach. And I'm sure any respectable high school would.

I'll answer this, but this is on the verge of veering completely off the rails.

No, I wouldn't be ok with it: especially in the case of a coach/player relationship. Even college coaches aren't allowed to date their players, for good reason. High school coaches dating high school seniors on their team?

The other fact is, this guy is not exactly being plopped into our culture in a vacuum. He's fully aware of the legalities and ethics involved.

I'll concede there's an "arbitrary" nature to this law, but there's no way around that. Obviously (to most of us in America), a 30 year old teacher dating a 16 year old student is abhorrent. A 19 year old college student dating that a 17 year old student seems ok to most of us. The threshold is somewhere in the middle, and if we're enforcing laws, it has to be set somewhere by some "arbitrary" measure.

I agree with you on most points. This case is wrong on several levels, yes. My argument is simply the age limit one.

I'm from Appalachia. It does not apply. Apparently they are not related.

Seems legit.