LOS ANGELES, Nov. 14 (UPI) -- Attorneys for a Los Angeles school district argued in court that a 14-year-old girl could have given consent for sex with one of her middle-school teachers.
School district officials are under fire for pressing the argument in lawsuit proceedings in which the teen was seeking damages for emotional trauma after a five-month sexual relationship with a 28-year-old teacher at Edison Middle School in Los Angeles.
District officials defended the action, saying they were trying to make the point that the girl was a willing participant and presented her prior sexual history in court.
"While we are sympathetic of the pain that this type of inappropriate relationship could cause this young woman and her family, the case focused on whether the school district could have done anything to prevent it," noted the attorney for the school district.
But parents, legal and sex assault experts were incensed.
"The belief that middle school children can consent to sexual activity is something one would expect to hear from pedophile advocates, not the second-largest school district in the U.S.," said John Manly, an attorney in yet another teacher sex case in a different school.
A jury last fall found L.A. Unified was not liable for damages in the case. District officials argued that school staff didn't know of the abuse and that the eighth-grade teacher and student were careful to hide it. When official learned of the relationship, the teacher was removed and later sentenced to three years in prison for lewd acts with a child.
