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“Teacher and Former Student Marry”

© Susan Maree Jeavons

These romantic, but deceiving headlines were in many local newspapers last month.

You've heard her name. I refuse to mention it, unlike the major networks who have practically adorned it in neon lights! The media called the rape a "seduction," a "sexual relationship," and a "love affair."

The truth is that she was a 34-year-old school teacher. He was her 12-year-old, 6th grade student, but she met him when he was in the 2nd grade. She was convicted on two counts of child rape, and spent over 7 years in prison. Now 43, she and her 22-year-old victim have two children together and were recently married in a wedding that was much publicized on several major TV stations, including ABC and NBC. "Entertainment Tonight" paid the couple $800,000 for the exclusive rights to air their wedding, but said they did not pay for the wedding.

There is something morally wrong when a convicted child rapist is compensated for allowing the media to tell her story. There is something morally wrong when some can't wait to see what kind of wedding dress the convicted child rapist will wear to her wedding. There is something morally wrong when the media calls child rape a love affair.

A family friend of the couple stated on "Good Morning America," that the circumstance of the original relationship (a student raped by a teacher) is a "non issue at this point."

Statutory rape a non issue? When did the rape of a child become a non issue? When did we become so understanding, so sympathetic to a child rapist?

Some may say that because the victim is now an adult, that I should have no objections. Without knowing their history, I wouldn't think twice about the media's celebration of their "love." However, because I am a survivor of child sexual abuse, I admit that I may be biased. I have absolutely no tolerance for the media's insensitivity to the feelings of other victims of child sexual abuse. Maybe they don't realize that their portrayal of a rapist and her victim being wed, may be an image that triggers severe revulsion and rage in some survivors. The images that may emerge are traumatic.

What if the rapist were a male teacher, and the victim a 12-year-old female student? Would the media be so eager to follow their story? Or isn't it scandalous enough? What if the perpetrator wasn't the victim's teacher, but a stranger or neighbor, or even a relative? It seems that the more shocking and repulsive a story is, the more the media seems eager to exploit it. Even when it involves the rape of a child.