Everyone's favorite teacher was released from prison. Will she go back to her former student paramour? Story here:

http://www.cnn.com/2004/LAW/08/03/teacher.sex.ap/index.html

$20 says she will go back to him.

I really feel for her children - both the ones she had before she met him and the new ones. I mean, her 'older' kids ended up moving to Alaska with their dad to get away from the media glare and the younger two...

Action News says that Vili is petitioning the courts to allow him and LeTourneau to be with each other. So they probably will go back to each other.

I win: The judge lifted the no contact order and the 'boy' is looking forward to seeing her again and seeing if they can have a life together.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5625261/

Good for them! I think it's a very romantic story. It goes to prove what I have been saying for years--there is often more to these so-called "child sexual abuse" cases than meets the eye. I am amazed, though, that they didn't successfully brainwash Vili into thinking of Letourneau as a villain.

Maybe I'm just a little (or a lot) old fashioned but I STILL think the idea of a 30-ish woman having a physical relationship, even worse an emotional one, with a teenager is just flat peculiar. And she was a teacher, after all. That puts her in a position of authority and/or power. A 12 or 13 year old has very strong feelings, of course, but they are NOT mature adult feelings. I think to warp that innocence and turn it into something different is not right. This Billy fellow is now 21 so will do as he chooses but the big question is where do those choices come from? He spent much of his second decade of life helping to raise children, under media scrutiny, visiting his "life mate" in prison, etc. Maybe it is all about love and such. But I don't believe in love like that. And I think, given some time to grow into his own skin, neither will he.

You know, I had a very similar story occur with a family friend...

My father's friend returned one night from a week long business trip to find is wife of twenty years and mother of his three kids in their bed with one of her fourteen year old Mexican students while their kids were asleep in the house.

Of course, he beat the stuffing out of both of them, tossed her out of the house that second, and got everything in the divorce settlement.

Later, he was crying on the phone to my father. All he could say was "After twenty years, I didn't realize I was married to a whore."

For reference, this man is a highly experienced and skilled engineer and veteran of the Shah's air force.

Had the shoe been on my foot, I would've acted with far less constraint that he did.

I agree with the majority. 12 years old is definitely nowhere near an adult. I think about what I was like when I was 12 and yeah, if an older man said he loved me and everything, I probably would have believed him and believed that this was right, etc., and loved him back.

But I grew up and matured. I realize there's a lot for me to offer and my worth isn't just judged by who likes me.

I don't care what someone does once they reach 16/18 (whatever the age of consent is). But before that, before they reach the voting age, they're most likely not mature enough to deal with adult situations. That's why we have age of consent laws and why Ms. Letoruneau was put in jail.

If you really love someone enough, you can wait.

I don't think you'd like to match your 12 gauge against what I've got in my house, you little tick.

When your son or daughter gets mixed up with a person three times their age while just entering junior high school (which is an ordeal enough to just be that age) we can agree to disagree further. But, for now, I'm still thinking it is just plain weird. You are entitled to your opinion, though.

And one last little thing to say: If the best thing you have on hand to deal with people who differ with you is a firearm then I hope you get a good parole officer. Roos was being figurative but you sound completely serious and scary.

Haha thanks Gatsby but I`m sure its watched by both the police and probably its neighbors after they got the notice that one of these things was moving into the area.

Two things. One, this is NOT the Controversial Issues forum and although some issues posted as Current Events are bound to be controversial, such as this one. Two, the rules for the Controversial Issues forum holds true to the whole of Funtrivia, let's not get personal please whoever started it, just let it end now. Debate this without getting heated or we will be forced to close the thread.

Thank you.

I must admit I react like most people here and I think it is a wrong thing on the part of the said woman. I think the law did the right thing in convicting her. Of course there are a few things to consider in all this and I think a few questions to ask as well.

First, what happens if they stay together, living happily ever after so to say? Strange things happen. It makes you wonder.

On the other hand society has to protect children and for me, it was the right thing to do (put her in jail) - one as an older, mature person she had to have known what she was doing - she could have waited! And in my opinion that was the only course of action. We cannot allow these things simply because it would open the door for thousands of sex offenders to get off free and that is just not permissable. Second, her continued behaviour is also unexcusable.

What must also be remembered is that she did her time. She is out and what happens now is well between them. If they continue or not, it is really not our business. Yes of course this will not happen with the way newspapers are today but it should be like that.

I was watching the news last night and I think they were saying Ms Letourneau and Villi (the 'boy') are going to be married soon.

Frankly, I don't care what they do now that he's of age. Of course, I think that they should take some time with her out of jail to see if they really want to be together, but that's just my opinion.

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I was watching the news last night and I think they were saying Ms Letourneau and Villi (the 'boy') are going to be married soon.

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The rapist marries its victim. Sounds like someone you would read in the news about a less advanced society. I wonder if the law about a criminal not being legally able to profit by his/her criminal acts could be applied in this particular case?
I think a sorry Sue is in order from me btw. Sorry. The comments I read just made my skin crawl.

No problem. I was a victim of sex abuse as a child, not by family members. The first time was when I was about 8 years old and I will never forget how I felt, the terror as I thought he was going to kill me, I was too young to realise that my parents' warning about 'strange men might hurt you' could mean anything else. Every detail is as fresh in my mind as if it were yesterday. Then a few years later I was abused virtually on a daily basis by the caretaker (janitor) at my school, as were a couple of other girls, we were too scared to tell anyone. I can fully understand how any parent can get angry just at the thought of a child being abused, I know that I do.

Back on topic. The schoolboy crush of a child of 12 for his teacher is unlikely to lead to a long-lasting relationship. If they marry I would give it a very short time before floundering. They are just not likely to have much in common outside the bedroom.

I concur with Sue---the biggest thing they had going for them was at the time of the affair this was secretive and taboo. The excitement of the act fed into the affair. But now that it is legal will they feel the same? Could he feel the same? All reports indicate that his life after the affair has not been well. He never finished school, unable to hold down a succession of jobs, and yet wants to marry?

I would think as an adult, both of them should take time apart. She especially knowing that her actions affected his childhood and who he is as a person today. And please dear god, do not let her go back to being an educator.

Isn't their a syndrome (Stockholm or something like that) where the victim comes to associate and aspire to love the perpetrator?

I've had crushes on a few of my teachers in school but this cuts the cake. I lived in Washington State when this occured, and remember driving early one morning when they announced Mary Kay had been taken into custody AGAIN when they found her in the car with Vili. There are those that feel rather sympathetic to the situation and I wonder what they see that I can't?

Ah but does it really matter what we think? "I would", "I think" and on and on, not just here but everywhere where this is talked about - we are not the ones in question here, they are. Lets face it, if it were most of us in the first place, none of this would have happened, besides it is totally wrong to asign your motivations to other people - that is why they are not you/us. I think they should be left alone and what happens, happens. We don't know how/what they feel and honestly, now that they are both of legal age, this is none of our concern.

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Ah but does it really matter what we think?

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It doesn`t matter pegazus but the forums are all about chatting. By extension you could just as easily ask does my taste in music matter or does Hitlers state of mind matter, and if they do not in fact matter why talk about those topics at all? I guess nothing could really matter but people like to chat about different topics.
That the child has grown into a man is a good point but that the mental developmental process of that man has been affected by the abuse is also without doubt. The sad fact is that abuse can often lead to more abuse. The relationship between the abuser and the abused can never been defined as a normal healthy one and to encourage that relationship is to pander to the sickness of the abuser.
There should have been a court order issued denying the criminal access to her victim, perhaps as part of her own healing process and therapy.

Oh agreed they are but it is not exactly the same, or at least that wasn't the point I was trying to make. I really believe none of us here would ever find ourselves in this situation, like this woman. My point is that threrefore it is poinless to say "I would", "I think" because in reality none of us can put ourselves in such an extreme situation hipothetically (sp?) so to be able to say "I think it would be better if they .... " or something like that. You would have to be I think either a psychologist or to have been there to be able to judge what they are possibly thinking, otherwise you are atributing your "normal/regular" reasoning to both of them and that is pointless.

To talk about what should have been done/can be done, now that is a whole different matter. I totally agree with you on that one - a court order should have been issued to keep them apart, with some heavy therapy. I am assuming they both already had mandatory therapy but now that she is out I would make more of it obligatory. I agree it can never be a normal relationship, or what we consider normal but there in lies, for my money, the failure of the system that should have kept them apart and that is where the real discussion should begin - for me. How it was handled in the first place, trouble that brought, subsequent issues like that court order the judge lifted now that she is out of jail - tons of troublesome things to discuss.