Victoria teacher jailed over student sex

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

A HIGH school teacher who got a student pregnant then paid for her abortion has been jailed for at least four years.

Stephen Peter Morrow, 55, was sentenced to six years' jail with a minimum of four years after being found guilty early this month of nine counts of sexual penetration of a 16- or 17-year-old under his care, supervision or authority.

Victorian County Court judge Tom Wodak said Morrow betrayed his training and discipline.

"Instead of doing that you seduced a naïve young female to pander selfishly to sexual desires," the judge said.

Morrow's victim said she was satisfied he was behind bars and "will have time to reflect" on what he did to her.

Morrow was a physics teacher at Melbourne Girls' College when he had sex with the student in the 1990s.

The first time they had sex, in Morrow's car, the 16-year-old girl was a virgin and was still wearing part of her school uniform.

The County Court was told Morrow had unprotected sex with the student at least 33 times in his car and in motels.

When the girl discovered she was pregnant Morrow, who was alleged to be the father, took her to a clinic and paid about $320 for the abortion.

Morrow said he had sex with the student once and only after she finished year 12.

He denied he had made her pregnant.

The victim said she was not vindictive towards Morrow despite the enormous impact his offences had on her life.

"I have no feelings of wanting revenge of any kind but it does give me a satisfying feeling that he is in there (custody) and he's got a long time to think about what's happened.

"I hope he will come to understand what he's done was absolutely wrong.''

Melbourne Girls' College principal Judith Crowe said Morrow had transgressed the moral and ethical behaviour expected of teachers "in a most calculating and heinous way''.

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story...5006785,00.html

[Amby 490]

#######? why would he pay for the abortion if he didn't think it was his child?

[Nagishkaw 510]

#######? why would he pay for the abortion if he didn't think it was his child?

Exactly! It makes ya wonder.

[Mr. Big Dog 10,747]

What also makes you wonder is how this guy spends six years in prison while all those female teachers that have been caught having sexual relationships with them little boys usually get off the hook quite easily. Bit of a double standard there, it seems.

[Peikko 1,575]

It's not right for a woman to seduce a male student either, but I think the difference has to come in that the consequences for a young girl being seduced by an older man are generally more serious than the other way around - in this instance there was an unwanted pregnancy which is extremely traumatic and then she had an abortion, which is probably for the best but it is something she has to live with all her life.

The scars from a young man being seduced by an older female are going to be very different - and I would hazard a guess at them being less humiliating long term.

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

It is pretty seedy.

[Gaby&Talbert 1]

It's not right for a woman to seduce a male student either, but I think the difference has to come in that the consequences for a young girl being seduced by an older man are generally more serious than the other way around - in this instance there was an unwanted pregnancy which is extremely traumatic and then she had an abortion, which is probably for the best but it is something she has to live with all her life.

The scars from a young man being seduced by an older female are going to be very different - and I would hazard a guess at them being less humiliating long term.

That's a bit of a double standard isn't it?

[DeadPoolX 9]

What also makes you wonder is how this guy spends six years in prison while all those female teachers that have been caught having sexual relationships with them little boys usually get off the hook quite easily. Bit of a double standard there, it seems.

I think it stems from the general idea that a male "wants it" and he wouldn't be able to get an erection if he didn't wish to have sex. Anyone who knows anything about physiology knows different, but the average person obviously won't know a whole lot about this. They'll figure if "it gets hard, he must want to do it." And in some situations, he may actually want to have sex with an older female (one of those teachers, for instance), but under the law, a minor doesn't get to have that say -- if you're an adult and you have sex with an underage individual, it's still considered statutory rape.

Even crime collections data is biased against males and in favor of females. The UCR (Uniform Crime Reports), which is heavily utilized by the FBI and law enforcement agencies across the nation, doesn't take into account rape against males of any age, heterosexual or homosexual. According to the UCR, rape can only occur to a female. While rape is more commonly instigated against females, it can -- and has -- happened against males as well, particularly homosexual males.

[Peikko 1,575]

I wasn't suggesting that every male student 'wants' sex with the older woman. I was suggesting that the consequences of having sex as a female and a male at a young age are different.

I am not sure if the law recognises these differences and that is why the sentencing is different, or just that in the various cases brought forward the circumstances have been different.

It is clear to me though, that if a young female has had sex with an older man that produced a pregnancy which was certainly unwanted by the male and has an abortion, that is a far greater burden than could occur to a male if the roles were switched.

[Peikko 1,575]

I don't know if you read that as double standards. I read that as there are differences between the two sets of circumstance.

[DeadPoolX 9]

I wasn't suggesting that every male student 'wants' sex with the older woman. I was suggesting that the consequences of having sex as a female and a male at a young age are different.

I am not sure if the law recognises these differences and that is why the sentencing is different, or just that in the various cases brought forward the circumstances have been different.

It is clear to me though, that if a young female has had sex with an older man that produced a pregnancy which was certainly unwanted by the male and has an abortion, that is a far greater burden than could occur to a male if the roles were switched.

I wasn't necessarily pointing to you in my comments. I was describin the "general" idea behind the differences between males and females in these cases. But you're right -- an unwanted pregnancy (even a wanted one, if the woman is underage) is a problem that the man wouldn't have to physically face. Even so, the man might still have to pay child support, although I'm not quite sure how he'd go about doing that if he were in prison.

[Gaby&Talbert 1]

Abortion is legal in the US so if it is them it must mean that murdering an unborn baby is ok right? So if it is ok to do this then why should a woman have to live with the guilt? (I'm being sarcastic I hope you all know). If a young girl is seduced then that would still mean she was willing which isn't much different than a young man wanting it right? To be fair in the eyes of the law there shouldn't be any difference in the sentencing of a man or a woman. Just because boys may be more resilliant than girls shouldn't matter. If a crime is committed then the punishment shouldn't depend on the gender.

A father you can tell his daughter she is fat and she is scarred for life but if you say the same thing to your son he won't think twice about it. We shouldn't be any less sensitive to our sons just because they are boys. What does it teach our sons? We treat women better than men in our society?

[Peikko 1,575]

I don't think that is true at all. Women certainly don't get better treatment than men in US society.

For most crimes, the gender of the perpetrator has absolutely no relevance. However rape is a very different crime. While I certainly believe that it is possible for a woman to rape a man, and certainly a young man being raped by a woman in a position of authority is all too possible, the consequences of that rape are simply different dependent on if you are male or female.

Even the emotional consequences will be different. That doesn't mean that in the emotional context the male should be able to 'pull themselves together' more easily but the fact is that a male's experience of sex is so very different from a females'. A female is more easily violated by a rape experience. Take into account the nature of virginity (male versus female) and the fact that a female can become pregnant as a result of rape where a male can not it's quite obvious to me that the two experiences are not interchangeable.

As far as sentencing being more lenient with female perpetrators than with males, again I would imagine that the circumstances surrounding each case have a greater say in the severity of sentencing than the gender of the perpetrator.

[Chica Yeyé 41]

It's not right for a woman to seduce a male student either, but I think the difference has to come in that the consequences for a young girl being seduced by an older man are generally more serious than the other way around - in this instance there was an unwanted pregnancy which is extremely traumatic and then she had an abortion, which is probably for the best but it is something she has to live with all her life.

The scars from a young man being seduced by an older female are going to be very different - and I would hazard a guess at them being less humiliating long term.

Dear sister, as an educator, I think they are BOTH equally f#cked up situations. School teachers and university professors are supposed to guide themselves by a code of ethics that prevents them from courting and/or dating/sleeping with the students under their care. The relationship will NEVER be equal: the teacher/professor has the power. This kind of abuse of power and break of ethical guidelines of the teaching profession is just f$cked up.

[Peikko 1,575]

I quite agree with you on that, it is completely screwed up to have a person in authority having sexual relations with a person under that authority regardless of gender. That is not a normal or acceptable sexual relationship and certainly the emotional consequences must be horrendous. As far as the abuse of power and crossing of ethical guidelines is concerned the cases should not be treated differently.

However, I still maintain that there are differences in the perception of sex dependent on gender as well as the physical differences of sex as a woman as apposed to sex as a man. These differences will lead to a different emotional and physical response to forced sex. In this instance, men and women are different, there is just no getting around that.