SACRAMENTO, Calif. — A 41-year-old high school teacher exchanges thousands of text messages with his student, then leaves his wife and three kids to date her. The couple states on national TV that the relationship didn’t become physical until she was 18.
In California, there’s nothing illegal about what they did.
But a lawmaker hopes to change that with a bill that would make such relationships a felony, even if the student is 18, and strip teachers of pensions and retiree health care if they are convicted.
To prevent “grooming” students for relationships after they become adults, the bill would criminalize seductive communication, such as sexual text messages.
“Our hope is that that will be a pretty strong and painful deterrent and will cause someone to think twice before starting an inappropriate, unethical relationship with a student,” said Republican Assemblywoman Kristin Olsen, the bill’s sponsor.
Olsen is from Modesto, a city about 75 miles south of Sacramento where teacher James Hooker and student Jordan Powers struck up their relationship at Enochs High School. Powers has dropped out, but Hooker’s 17-year-old daughter still attends.
