Bill would rewrite law to clarify sex between teachers and students is illegal even if it's consensual. (photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons)
Current law lets educators use consent as a legal defense if the student is 16 or older.
The bill would change that says its sponsor Republican Representative Doug Collins.
"We want teachers to be able to teach, and students to be in a proper role," says Collins. "And a student can not say I wanted to have sex with my teacher and have it be a defense."
Collins says the need for the rewrite became clear last summer in a US Supreme Court case where a Richmond County softball coach was let off the hook for having sex with a consenting sixteen year old student.
Since then other cases have been thrown out of court, says Cherokee County District Attorney Gary Moss, and the rewrite will fix that.
"This will ensure we once again have the ability to prosecute teachers who are having sex with their students."
Moss says the consensual sex law also applies to police and correction officers and people working in psychiatric institutions and hospitals.
