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Hannah McIntyre, 24, was suspended from her position at Merchant Taylors' Boys' School in Crosby in January after allegations of sexual misconduct.
The alleged incident involved sixth form students off the school site.
Miss McIntyre has been charged under section 16 of the Sexual Offences Act and is due to appear at South Sefton Magistrates' Court on 28 July. The classics teacher, who took up a position at the £2,727-a-term school in September 2007, was arrested and bailed in January. The misconduct was alleged to have occurred more than a year ago outside of school hours. Although sixth form pupils are above the age of consent, it is against the law to have a sexual encounter with someone under 18 if there is a relationship of trust.
I cannot see the point of this farce. If the allegations are true, then the teacher should not have done it (schoolboy fantasies aside!) but the involvement of the criminal justice system is just ludicrous - anyone over 16 is a consenting adult in sexual matters. She will lose her job and probably be barred from teaching for some time in any case - professional punishment is enough. Yet another example of criminalising minor misdeeds to the utmost degree at the same time that violent crime is endemic on our streets.
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The age of homosexual consent used to be 21.
11 July 2009 at 23:28When it was lowered to 16 yrs (in 2000), the law of unintended consequences meant that a male teacher could have a homosexual relationship with a his 16 yr old pupils.
So, I believe they got round this problem by making it an offence for anyone in a position of trust to have a sexual relationship with anyone in their 'care'.
This would include teachers, scout masters, social workers, etc.
In this particular case, what is the problem?
Well, as long as she wasn't charging them money for it or giving them better or worse coursework marks as a result of good or bad performance, I don't see a problem.
11 July 2009 at 23:36I mean, what if she were a bell-ringer and invited some class swots along to bell-ringing on a Sunday morning?* What's the difference between that and shagging? Why is one acceptable and the other not?
* Provided, as ever, she didn't give extra marks to the swots who actually turned up.
"...the involvement of the criminal justice system is just ludicrous - anyone over 16 is a consenting adult in sexual matters."
12 July 2009 at 09:48But as the article states, that doesn't apply here: 'Although sixth form pupils are above the age of consent, it is against the law to have a sexual encounter with someone under 18 if there is a relationship of trust.'
If she'd been someone other than a teacher, there'd have been no problem.
Sadly, we are dealing with people who, when drafting this legislation, genuinely believed that children in schools were terrified into doing anything their teacher tells them and were helpless to resist. Even when teenagers.
One visit to any school in the land should have told them otherwise...
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