WRT age of consent...

That is an area that will never find full resolution. With emotional and physical development being so varied from one person to the next there will obviously be variation and times when the rules will "not be fair". However, society does have a vested interest in protecting minors and as such has to set boundaries legally to allow for redress for bad behavior. As already noted many jurisdictions have rules that are "flexible" depending on the relative ages of those involved. anyone here want to argue for an exception for 13-year-olds with 49-year-olds? Heck, there are girls who don't even start puberty until 12 or 13.

Obviously there will *always* be an arbitrary aspect to "drawing a line". But society needs to draw those lines because of things like this. Yes, we hope our police and prosecutors will use good judgement (which is not always guaranteed) and various jurisdictions have flexibility in the laws with respect to relative ages of the participants. And of course there is the point that a girl that's almost 18 is legally off limits but a day later things change completely. Of course that's not how her emotional development works. And of course things will get difficult if you have an older person hooking up with a mature 17-year-old. But again we're getting into what we used to call the "muddy middle" areas.

But all that said, all those exceptions and considerations are totally irrelevant in this case, neh? She was 5 years shy of 18. Not a few months. Not a year. It's not even considered late for a girl to start puberty at 13. And he most certainly wasn't 18 or 19. He was 49. 36 years older.

So sure, I agree that there is a difficult question involved in these type of policy issues. And I would argue that there is no solution that would work in all cases. But in *this* case, I don't see much grey area at all.

Anyway... I revived the thread with the idea of posting something indicating the closure of the topic. Others said and I agreed that we should tread softly in this particular case as we were not privy to all that had happened. But now we have a record of the newspaper articles as well as the public record available on-line.

He was convicted of sexual assault. One count. The victim was 13 at the time. He was 49. He was sentenced to 20 years, 15 suspended, served 1. Currently living in Montana.

All those facts are a matter of public record.

I will add that the good thing that happened as a result of this were some serious discussions at our headquarters. And some revisions and tightening up of our attitudes and policies. Always have two adults in classes. No one needs to be alone with a child for everyones' protection. And remember that the person who does bad things isn't necessarily the creepy guy hiding behind a tree. Sometimes the absolute worst offenders are the last people you'd suspect which is why they are some of the worst -- they can get away with it and they'll always have their defenders who just can't fathom that they could do such things.

None of this means you treat everyone like a child molester. But it does mean that you keep your eyes open and pay attention.