A Lesson Not Learnt

[vernonk]

Jeremy Forrest mouthing I LOVE YOU in court to the underage pupil he had an affair and absconded to France with shows he either doesn't appreciate what he's done wrong or doesn't care. So IMO he deserves a very long sentence until at the very least he gets it into his thick head why such a relationship is wrong. The fact that the girl apparently responded the same way, also apologising and pledging to wait til he's free is not such a concern as she is an infatuated child. By the time Forrest gets out she may well have moved on, though if she is allowed to visit him in jail that will perpetuate an illicit romance for the Media. I've also been disturbed by glowing references Forrests fellow teachers gave to help his case, which surely condone his actions and therefore also make those teachers unsuitable for their jobs. Surely Forrest should never be allowed anywhere near a school again. what do you think?

[Sqad]

Ellipsis

\\\More likely is that one or other or both will realise what massive idiots they've been, and grow up \\\

Just for my education....how does one know when one "has grown up?"
Is it when they have reached the age of 15, as the Law suggests?

[jim360]

Some people can be incredibly mature as young as 10 (or younger in some cases if they are forced to be), others never seem to grow up. The law can hardly cope with such variation so has to impose an arbitrary margin. Anyway, it's 16 not 15.

[Bazile]

What we have here is a case of a bloke prosecuted for breaking the law , which says that you cant have relations with a pupil under the age of 16 , in the UK

The age chosen is purely arbitrary, but the consensus in UK is that 16 is about right . - note ' in the UK '

The age of consent in other european countries like spain and france is 13 and 15 respectively . Are they wrong ?

If you emigrated to spain or France , would you be perturbed if your son or daughter had sexual relations at 13 or 15 ?

She was a few months short of the legal age - would those few extra months have all of a sudden meant that she was now capable of dealing with love/sex and related emotions , that she would not have been able to do , at a few months short of 16 ?.

Like i said he is being prosecuted for breaking the law , as it stands in this country .

I dont beleive he is a sexual predator

[meglet]

Space Cadet, a paedophile is one who is attracted to some that is pre-pubescent. She wasn't.

[Sqad]

jim.....sorry....a slip of my finger and not checking my post.

Bazile.......exactly......tough times in which we live.

[jno]

not all that tough.

Just don't run away with 15-year-olds.

Most people manage to comply with the law.

[jno]

If exactly the same scenario was acted out 1 yr later, there would have been no charges to answer

If the gun had been a millimetre to the left, the bullet would have missed and there'd be no murder charge... that's the way it goes.

Shame he couldn't wait that one year.

[Ellipsis]

> Just for my education....how does one know when one "has grown up?"

Sqad, I think andy-hughes put it quite well earlier. To quote ...

------------------------------------
The fact that he took her to France with obviously no forward planning what ever proves his own level of immaturity - to imagine that if they ran away they could live happily ever after.

Part of teaching children adult behaviour is showing them that actions have consequences. In unformed and developing minds, there is an excuse for not seeing very much further than tomorrow. In the mind of a responsible adult, there is no such excuse, and this man has shown himself to be neither responsible, nor an adult.

This man has allowed an infatuation to become pseudo-reality, and taking an underage girl abroad without parental consent is a law of which he should have been aware.

It is apparent that he also has the mind of a fifteen-year-old, and will hopefully spend his time in custody catching up to a level of maturity commensurate with his age and profession.
------------------------------------

He should have taken more notice of The Police ...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KNIZofPB8ZM

[ummmm]

Sqad - there would have been charges to answer if he was still her teacher.

Were you allowed to bonk your patients?

[anotheoldgit]

andy-hughes

/// But as the day unfolds, it seems my point of view is heading into the majority, perhaps when he returns from lunch he will turn his attention to some of their posts, instead of singling out mine, as he does routinely. ///

I don't think you would have it any different, but you should consider yourself lucky, you have only myself to bother about, whereas myself is constantly attacked by many, and of course I also respond to many of them, not just you alone.

[Sqad]

ummmm


\\\\Were you allowed to bonk your patients? \\\

Yes providing that you were not caught.........No.....if you were caught.

Ellipsis, so when you can "plan for the future" you are then mature......blimey...they a millions of immature adults around, including me, but yes i take the point about him being immature in NOT planning, but that wasn't my query, which was " when are you immature NOT when aren't you immature.

Again, this love and infatuation scenario.......the human mind does not work like the engine of a diesel locomotive.....it responds differently to differing stimuli. You often do "immature things" when being labelled "mature"...we all do....haven't you?

[humbersloop]

sqad, the sexual offence of "abuse of a position of trust" applies up to 18 year olds in schools, colleges and residential settings, so yes, there certainly would still have been a case to answer actually

[Sqad]

LOL ^ sorry "when are you MATURE not when are you immature?"

[Sqad]

humber...LOL.....OK

[sherrardk]

He had a professional duty not to have sex with any of his students regardless of how mature or immature he was/is - doesn't matter if she was nearly 16 or not (although she was only 14 when this all began).

[sunny-dave]

Lovers' Tiff, triggs

[anotheoldgit]

Mmmm, Stuart Hall gets 15 months for a series of historical sex attacks on girls as young as nine, and this teacher gets 5½ years??????????

[naomi24]

//If exactly the same scenario was acted out 1 yr later, there would have been no charges to answer//

Not so, apparently. I’ve just been listening to a discussion on the radio with an expert on these matters, and it appears the law now says that since teachers are in a ‘position of power’, regardless of the student’s age, teacher/pupil relationships are not acceptable. The woman said that even had the girl been 17, he would still have been breaking the law. I get the impression that he got himself into an impossible situation which escalated. He’s not a paedophile, he didn’t abduct her – she went willingly - and bearing in mind the lesser sentence handed down to Stuart Hall, who was a genuine predator, as are the Asian men mentioned by Andy Hughes, who groom white girls for sex, in these circumstances 5.5 years is a harsh penalty. I think these two committed the heinous crime of falling in love. What a pity they didn’t wait until she’d left school before taking it further. Very sad case.