Sorry off topic but what do you call the celeb had a relationship with his adopted daughter? Was it Allen?

I dont think a teacher should be put on the sex offenders register for having sex with a pupil age 16+ at all but i dont agree with it either and would expect the teacher to lose his job. A teacher is in a position of power and having a relationship with a pupil is abusing that power i would find a teacher who has an intrest in a 16 year old very strange tbh. My biology teacher was sacked for having sex with a 15 year old student it was all over the papers and there was a massive uproar he will never teach again although she was a minor would it of been ok a few months later if she was 16? imo no a teacher is entrusted with a child somewhere they are supposed to be safe etc abusing that trust should never be ok.

mowgli is that true? most fancy pe teachers? god ours looked like giant flesh coloured rats and had teeth coloured to match. personally i found the more intellectual subject teachers more attractive but then i've always found that in a relationship i have to have someone i find attractive but they have to be able to understand my way of thinking and have good knowledge and a quick wit too! yeah a pe teacher can run a track and some schools might have attractive ones, not mine, but for me, they always seem to try too hard in the pe department!

i can see both sides, the child protection is paramount obviously, and i think that definitely if the member of staff and the pupil involved are genuine about each other then they can and should wait a few years til the schoolness has passed and then go for it if they so choose. but a relationship should not happen or be allowed to happen before that point as it is questionable whether the child is mature enough and whether the teacher is taking advantage.

on the other hand, i had a big thing for my english teacher back in the day and we hung out, and we'd go for a smoke and i'd sit in his classroom with him after school and on several occasions we'd lend each other books and cds, and i did a lot of my own poems, and he'd take them and read them even though it was nothing to do with school and tell me what he thought. had he ever made a move on me i would definitely have responded as there was a lot more personal connection than there should have been, but i wouldnt have pursued anything until after leaving school, out of respect for his position and knowing it could have cost him his job, but also to make sure of things being right for myself too. at the time,

i wasnt the average "child". yes i was 15 and 16years old, but i lived in a hostel since half way through year 10, and while the other muppets in my year were on about friday night and who'd banged who, or films, or school gossip and fights, all the usual s***, i was more bothered about paying my rent which wasnt covered completely by housing benefit, learning to cook and keeping on good terms at the hostel so i didnt get evicted, relationships and not just sex, sorting my life out and trying to re-establish contact with my sister and rebuild a relationship with my dad, and basically issues that were a lot heavier than i should have been worrying about at that age (thanks to my b*** of a stepdad pushing me to leave home by battering s*** out of me). so i would say i was mature enough at that time to know what i wanted and to have feelings for someone more than just a teen crush as they're called.  i know it would be seen as if anything had gone further it would have been wrong, but i feel even now that i was older in my head and so in that sense, could and did look out for myself and would have made my own choices at the time in a way that others might not have been mature enough to do.

in relation to the op, i think that the laws should be changed either so for all relationships between a teacher and student, the limit is either same as age of consent or it is 18 years, and that should be regardless of whether the teacher has taught the pupil or is from another school, contact can occur at multi school events so theres no difference in that aspect and the teacher is still a teacher all said and done. so same rule should apply in all cases if that makes sense, out of fairness and to protect those that need protecting.

Even when I was an impressionable youngster, I never found any of the male teachers fanciable.

Everyone always fancies the PE teachers but to me, they have always been a cross between a hobbit and an umpa lumpa.

And, when I started teaching the only male teacher I faniced, I got married to!

No disrespect to myself and DH but teachers are an odd looking bunch.

Alas all the lecturers at my college (I did FE instead of Sixth Form) were crusty old cronies so there wasn't any potential there!

It was pretty common in my day for teachers to socialise with sixth year pupils, invite them round for meals, go drinking with them and, almost inevitably, for intimate relationships to form. I know of at least two fellow pupils who have been with Sir for over 20 years and now have their babies.

Wasn't my cup of tea - I only had eyes for Morten Harket.

As a teacher in a position of trust/ responsibilty/ power it is wrong. Full stop.

I find it a complete betrayal of the teacher/pupil relationship when a teacher finds it acceptable to choose their mate from the cohort of pupils they have taught.

I would even go as far to say that even a couple of years after the pupil has left school it is STILL wrong for the teacher to enter into a relationship with the pupil.

I am very against it. I have seen a few teachers (all male ) enter into relationships with ex-pupils within a couple of years of the pupil leaving school and, I find it begs all sorts of questions that make me very uneasy.

I'm inclined to agree with all the posts so far..

If they become attracted, they shoudl wait until there is no longer the teacher-pupil element to their relationship, and see if the attraction is still there then.   I think it IS wrong, because regardless of the comparative ages, teachers are in a position of trust and authority over pupils, even in 6th form.

People who work closely with others - especially vulnerable people like young people KNOW that it is UNACCEPTABLE to engage in a sexual relationship with somebody you work with.

It doesn't have to be 'manipulation' as a trusted adult you have power - you do NOT exploit that - ever.

It never had and never would occur to me to see any of my young people as potential 'dates' - it just wouldn't happen.

It is more than feesable

but it's totally wreckless and irrespsonsible

Relationships complicate what should be a simple teacher pupil relationship and as such can unfairly benefit or hinder that child.  Also teacher is in a position of authority which would be compromised if a relationship was happening  Although the same could be said if they just had feelings which were not acted on and you cant stop feelings.

Is it completely unfeasible that two people, no more than a few years apart in age, who spend a lot of time together (as much as teachers and pupils do anyway) could become fond of each other though? Does it always have to be a case that one has manipulated the other?

I don't have an opinion yet, Just playing devil's advocate!

A teacher is in a position of authority. To sleep with or enter into a relationship with a pupil under their care is abusing their position of power.

I have a friend who is 28 and a PE teacher in a comprehensive school. He dated the dance teacher at his school while he was in 6th form, she was only a few years older than him and their 'defence' was that if they'd met in a club no one would be any the wiser. Whats worse though, is that his current girlfriend is an ex pupil of his again citing the same defence.

I worry he's going to land himself in a lot of trouble one day.

Whilst the pupil is still in their care its a betrayal of trust no matter if they are over the age of consent or not.

Ok, so I think we've done this one to death before but seeing as it's back in the news I thought it was topical!

Here's the link to the news story (c&p) http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/7653326.stm

The basic details as plagiarised from the BBC website are as follows:

NASUWT general secretary Chris Keates said it was an "anomaly" that a teacher who had sex with a pupil aged over 16 could go on the sex offenders register.

She told ITV's Tonight programme the law was wrong because a teacher could legally enter a relationship with a sixth former at another school.

In 2001, the law was changed to make it illegal for teachers to engage in sexual activity with pupils at their school aged under 18.

But Miss Keates said the abuse of trust law had gone too far in cases where the relationship started after a pupil had reached the age of consent.

Opinions? Should the law be changed to accomodate relationships between teachers and pupils over the age of consent, or should it be left as it is even though that same law doesn't prohibit relationships between teachers and Sixth Form pupils from differing schools?