Court Backs 'Consent' Defense in Teacher Sex Case

This from The School Law Blog by Mark Walsh, photo from WRDW.com:

A teacher convicted of having sex with a 16-year-old student should have been allowed to raise the defense that the relationship was consensual, the Georgia Supreme Court has ruled.

The state's highest court ruled 5-2 Monday in Chase v. The State that teacher Melissa Lee Chase was wrongly convicted because a state law barring those who supervise students in school from sexual relationships with them did not preclude the consent defense.

Chase was a 28-year-old teacher at Harlem High School in Harlem, Ga., in 2006 when she had a romantic relationship with a 16-year-old female student, including at least one sexual encounter, according to court papers. The age of consent for sex in Georgia is 16, although school personnel are subject to the state law, revised in 2006, that bars them from sex with those under their supervision. The 16-year-old was in Chase's class, but their romantic relationship began later.

The girl testified that she had initiated and "pushed" the relationship with the teacher. The state supreme court majority said the Georgia legislature did not explicitly bar a consent defense for school personnel...