In most states it is a felony for a teacher to have sex with a student regardless of age.
Didn’t know that more than a few states had laws on the books about sex with students.
As for her being 17, I missed that and indeed if she was 17 at the time, it may not matter. Some states have absolute ages of consent and others only allow ‘underage’ if there’s a small gap. I don’t know what Florida’s law is and the FACT that there are so many differences in the states tells me that this is not a cut and dried moral issue.
If he broke a law about teachers having sex with students, then charge him under that law but it IS NOT sexual abuse. Just as it would not be sexual abuse if someone on the cusp of 18 consents to sex with a 27 year old woman.
It cheapens the power of the charge when it’s made in legitimate circumstances and then has us making ‘sex offenders for life’ out of people who are not always guilty of anything but having a girlfriend who is 2 years younger than he (it has happened.)
Remember that ‘sex offender’ that was killed some time back and he was on the list because of his relationship with a girl that was about 2 years younger? (19-17, I think.) And because people think all sex offenders are massive pervs and threats to society, someone out there thought it was OK to kill this guy, thinking he was a rapist and not an innocent boy who got caught up in our hysteria over sex crimes.