A teacher at Boiling Springs High School has been charged with sexual battery on a student.

Abby Kate McElhenny, 23, was charged with the sexual battery of a 16-year-old senior at Boiling Springs High School.  Ms. McElhenny was a Spanish teacher and swim coach at the school until she resigned in the wake of the relationship being discovered after a relative of the student alerted the authorities.  She turned herself into authorities the day after her resignation, and was charged with the sexual battery of a student.  The police have also subpoenaed 750 texts that were exchanged between the teacher and student that reportedly were seeing one another from Dec. to May.

What makes this case different than others is that McElhenny is being charged under a recently enacted law that forbids sex between a teacher and student no matter what their age.  The age of consent in South Carolina is 16, and the boy’s parents have signed a waiver saying that they do not wish to press charges.  Some have said that charges being pressed against her is wrong as they are both of the age of consent, and that her punishment should be restricted to the loss of her job.  The problem with this concept is that a teacher is always viewed as someone that is charged with the care of minors while they are on school property.  It does not matter that the boy was legally able to consent to sexual intercourse with McElhenny, she was still in a position of power over him.

I’m sorry, but there is never an excuse for a teacher to be having sex with a student in my opinion.  While criminal charges don’t pop up from instances of it happening in college, if it’s happening in high school, no matter what the ages, it should be considered illegal.

Could someone else explain to me why it seems like every teacher sex scandal now involves text messages? Do none of these people read the stories of how those always come back to haunt you?