Posted on 05/21/2013 8:41:38 AM PDT by SoFloFreeper
Kaitlyn Hunt, an 18-year-old high school student in Sebastian, Fla., is facing charges and has been expelled from school for having a same-sex relationship with a 15-year-old classmate, CBS Tampa Bay reports. PICTURES: Fla. teen charged over underage same-sex relationship Hunt is charged with two counts of lewd and lascivious battery of a child 12 to 16 years of age after the other girl's parents called authorities when Hunt, a senior at Sebastian River High School, turned 18, according to the station.
(Excerpt) Read more at m.cbsnews.com ...
(Pardon me, that should be TWENTY THREE)
They were on the same basketball team, and in the same social circles, hanging out at the same places, doing the same things. Exactly where are these differences you speak of?
By the way, my mother was 15 when she started dating the 22 year old Marine who became my father, a hyper-conservative NY cop / detective for 25 years.
Romeo and Juliet were 14 and 15.
And most of our great grandparents were living as adults by the time they were 16.
George Washington: Talk of securing an appointment in the Royal Navy for him when he was 15 was dropped when his widowed mother objected. Thanks to his brother's connection to the powerful Fairfax family, at age 17 in 1749, Washington was appointed official surveyor for Culpeper County.
Maybe half a century ago. In these times, I'm not seeing a whole lot of difference in maturity between 14-year-olds and 28-year-olds. :)
Same here. I will say that I don’t agree with 15 year olds having consensual sex though. And in the instances where they are, you have parents who aren’t paying as close attention as they should be.
I agree with your focus on the ‘try it, you may like it’ attitude some adult authority figures seem to espouse these days.
>> South Florida media is working TO SUPPORT HOMOSEXUAL behavior.
No doubt and not limited to South Florida.
Statutory rape is not normally dismissed en masse, but it’s only necessary to factor in homosexuality to shamelessly legitimize the behavior.
Well I’m not convinced an 18 years and two days old person should be put in the position of having to contemplate the consequences. First of all, I remain unconvinced that most 18 year olds are thinking like an adult these days. They’re three years older than a 15 year old time wise, but reality being what it is, guys are probably operating on a 16 year old grip on reality, while a 15 year old girl may actually be operating on a 17 year old grip on reality. Who’s to say which one of these people is more mature?
There still are huge life experience gaps. Fourteen year olds still do not see the world and the “big picture” ramifications of things the same way a person just 4 years older than them do.
I’m not convinced a hard age time frame is the whole answer. Obviously (IMO) we don’t want a 23 year old person messing around with a 15 year old. I’m not even convinced we want an 18 year old doing it. Do we call it rape? I don’t think we do if they truly like each other and are a couple.
I will say that some 15 year old girls are probably as mature as an 18 year old guy. Who knows what level they are operating at? I don’t think it’s universally a thing we can nail down with precision.
As I said in another post, if they are consenting individuals who have met and formed a real relationship (whatever that is at either age), then there’s more to it than cheap thrills and one person trying to exploit the other.
If they meet and talk on a regular basis, that’s more than a senior guy getting her lit up at a party and taking advantage for a one night stand.
A few generations ago, these were ages when people could easily meet and with parental supervision transition through to marriage. Now it’s rape? I’m not comfortable with that at all. Of course I will admit, they weren’t fooling around behind parent’s backs too much a few generations back. At least not as easily they weren’t.
Potential consequences may outweigh the offense.
“And in the instances where they are, you have parents who aren’t paying as close attention as they should be.”
That and parents who are not engaged enough with their children and/or not getting their children engaged enough at home and socially with character building activities.
Although, I bave to admit, that in very recent years, one of my nephews and his wife were very good and very active parents, and had their 3 kids very engaged at school, home, and church, but their eldest, a girl, still became a real rebel at one point and caused them a lot of grief and gray hairs - leaving her bedroom through the window at 2:am in the morning on one occasion. So, I have also seen where some parents are doing all they can and it is just not enough to always stop a kid’s immaturity from getting the best of ‘em.
Perhaps the 15 yo was the one that ruined the 18yo. I do not think guilt should be based on what we know from this thread.
God, I hope you don't teach English or Brit Lit. Romeo and Juliet (14 and 16, traditionally) was a Shakespearean parody of popular Elizabethan romance-tragedies. The audience was supposed to (and did) laugh at the foolishness of the two characters who thought they were in "love" (as signified by the speed at which Romeo forgets his old flame and turns to Juliet). Far from supporting the idea of youthful competence at relationships, Shakespeare was poking fun at the whole concept (which is why the common practice of teaching Romeo and Juliet to freshmen or sophomores in high school is so problematic... attempting to explain to a 14 year-old that the point of the play is that 14 year-olds don't know what "love" is creates a rather large hurdle to overcome).
I hate it when people appeal to classic lit for support when they obviously misunderstand (or don't know) the lit to which they are referring. It's like when people quote/paraphrase Polonius (the clothes make the man/ neither a borrower nor a lender be/ to thine own self be true) without understanding that his whole speech was intended to show what a buffoon he was... and they quote him seriously! People don't bother to figure out what they are talking about any more...
I agree with that.
I have seen families where there are more than one kid, and it’s startling to see the majority do well, and one just go freaking loony bins on the parents. There’s no explaining it.
“They were on the same basketball team, and in the same social circles, hanging out at the same places, doing the same things. Exactly where are these differences you speak of?”
It was not I who made the quote you are responding to.
I was one who responded to that quote and like you questioned the assumptions that 15 & 18 year olds in the same school NEVER would be “hanging out” in the same circles.
As I said to that quote - one brother of mine who was two years older (or three depending on the time of the year) shared a number of mutual friends and acquaintances with me. I can even remember a number of parties as teens where his classmates, of both genders, and my classmates, of both genders were in attendance. In our social circle, who you knew was a bigger factor than the age of who you knew.
reread my post
I am in agreement with you.
Mere, by the book zero tolerance on this issue is not, in my view, the correct handling of the issue, because it dismisses any need to understand the facts in the context of the relationship or the context of the incident. Judges should be able to examine all the facts in their context and decide if it is merely a case of two young people who acted prematurely and hastily, together, or was there actual “rape”.
Yes there should be a public record of the judge’s proceedings but I would even go so far as to say the judge should first get the facts from each of the young persons, alone in his chambers, and before any “open court” proceeding, so the teens will be free to tell the judge THEIR truth without any pressure from anyone.
Yep, and the sodomy promoting Florida media is going all in....
Oh please. An 18 year old knows better than a 14 or 15 year old. If they don’t, then too bad...they SHOULD.
Good post.......
No, no. I understand you are. I just wanted to provide an example of
the sort of thing that can happen when parents don’t try to think a thing through. I understand their anger and I thank the good Lord everyday I didn’t have daughters but I really don’t think in this case the nuclear option was called for.
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