A female principal has hired a female teacher who previously, when aged 23, “had an affair with” her 16yo pupil (and who had been teaching illegally without legitimate qualifications at the time). Feminists have long bemoaned the “old boys club” that they accused of showing favouritism to men. Of course, feminists would never do anything like that!

In fact, this teacher was employed to teach boys again soon after the scandal came to light, and after she also cashed in by providing a self-justifying story for Woman’s Weekly, entitled “Teacher tells: I fell for my student“. The boy’s mother said the teacher “wasn’t that honest to begin with”. One suspects she hasn’t been that honest since, either. For example, she made no mention in the Woman’s Weekly article that she had been employed as a teacher under false pretences. Also, she claimed that the couple first kissed after she had received a blessing for the relationship from the boy’s mother, but if that were so, then what was she doing with the boy on earlier occasions when the mother discovered he was not at school receiving after-hours tutoring as he had claimed?

Notice the wording in the news report: “having sex with a 16yo student”, “had an affair with student”, “Miller’s affair” and “breach of the code of ethics”; and in the Women’s Weekly article: “she never imagined she’d fall in love”, “her new boyfriend”, “his new girlfriend”, “I had no idea if he liked me too”, “they started to talk more about their feelings”. If it had been a male teacher we could instead expect terms such as “sexually exploited young girl”, “molested a student”, “his texts to her were sexual harrassment”, “abused his position of authority”, “power imbalance”, “manipulated his young pupil”, “couldn’t keep his penis in his pants” and “he hasn’t acknowledged that his actions were inappropriate and an unacceptable abuse of power, therefore he presents an ongoing danger to students”. And Ms Tolley, our Minister of Education, would not have been quoted as avoiding any comment at all about the inappropriate sexual behaviour; in this case she was quoted as simply providing platitudes about parents’ peace of mind and measures to identify unqualified teachers.

Now I’m not necessarily implying that this female teacher should be treated the way men would be in similar circumstances. It may be humane, caring and realistic about human frailty to show understanding and forgiveness for this woman’s failure to control her sex drive, and for her opportunistic self-indulgence instead of prioritizing the protection of her much-younger student. But if so, shouldn’t we then expect such understanding and forgiveness equally for men who have sex with their young students?

This female teacher and her her student/lover are now said to have a baby and to be engaged. Sadly, her irresponsibility and self-serving history predict that she will become bored with him, break up their child’s family unit and resign him to many subsequent years of financial servitude to her. And that’s one of the better possible outcomes; his future has a good chance of including such adventures as character assassination, maternal child abduction, parental alienation, protection orders, allegations of violence and/or sexual offending, imprisonment, suicide.