Lesbian Teacher guilty of unlawful relationship

I feel there is more to this than meets the eye here.

Why did no one pick this up earlier? Could this teacher have been so clever? Probably not. 3 years is a long time to hide a sexual relationship - and NO one suspected?

I would not like this happening to my kids, - if what happened , did in fact happen, but It looks to me like if the parents suspected anything - at all, other than being a friend and mentor for her eating dissorder, then appropriate action should have been taken a LONG time ago, and not left 3 years...

25 years is a lot of punishment - is this equal to armed robery, rape and murder?

It's clear that the concept of punishment fitting the crime is lost in this case. Life in prison ? Holy shit. What do they give you for Murder 2 over there ? This smacks more of the Spanish Inquision than a just sentence. I can understand why she was convicted of unlawful relationship. But this is not a violent sexual assault in the sense of 1st degree Rape of a minor. Come on now. The purpose of a benevolent government is to represent a benevolent society. It seems to me that both the adult, the child, and her mother need rehabilitation. Because all 3 will be victims as a direct result of such a horridly draconian sentence that summarily ignores any notion of helping for a vengeful motive instead of harming. Though I'm not an MD, the oath they take of doing no harm and being healers instead is perhaps the most human, most noble of sentiments that a citizen of any country can have. With all due respect for the
Australians, who are a people I genuinely llike, perhaps
it would be sage for them to remember the term Botany Bay.

It's horrible when an adult uses a child's trust to gain a sexual advantage over them.

I'm not sure how I feel about this as a "straight", human being.
On one hand it is abhorrent when an adult takes sexual advantage with a child, especially an adult in a position of trust.
On the other hand, does the child seem psychologically harmed by it? Is she in a better or worse state now than she was before in terms of her behavior and psychological make-up?
How old was the teacher?
Obviously we need laws to protect the young from predators, but I also think that each case is unique and should be treated as such.
Let's assume for a moment that there was negative impact to the girl...Does this teacher deserve life imprisonment? I don't think so. That much I can feel certain about.
Another aspect of this case I find troubling is what seems the parent's almost passive participation. Gadzooks, isn't it more than a little strange that they would allow their child to develop a relationship as intimate as regular sleep overs with an adult of any gender?
Does that not send off huge, smoking warning signals about the state of the adult?
Too often the perpetrators of "non-violent" abuse are the previously abused, so in a manner, they are abused again by their own experience(s) and misunderstanding of their motivations.
This woman does not deserve to rot in prison. She can still be "salvaged" and be of benefit to society.
If the girl believes that she loves this woman, is putting the woman in prison not going to cause huge amounts of tormenting guilt and remorse for the girl that will affect her for the rest of her life?
Would that not damage her more than a society- deemed inappropriate sexual relationship with a teacher, especially if the girl -right or wrong - didn't feel she was abused?
I think the whole situation is sad, but knee-jerk reactions rarely benefit anyone, and this is one extremely harsh knee-jerk reaction.
As a species, we need to try to understand this kind of behavior from seemingly responsible adults in order to stop abuse.

well doesn't that sound like a porno fantasy, I guess besides the 14 year old.

I mean I get it it's horrible what she did, but the mother knew? I mean even if she didn't, she saw them cuddling.

I think life in jail is a bit harsh.

thanks teach,
way to make all LGBTs look bad.

i appreciate you giving homophobes a reason to hate us all