I have a screenplay idea. It concerns a male junior high school teacher who seduces a 12 year old student. He is caught by the authorities and given a very light sentence, as the sex was consensual. The twelve year old has his baby in the meantime.

While out on probation a few years later, the teacher and the student have another liaison. Another baby is conceived, and the teacher is sent to jail. A TV movie of the week sympathetically portrays the teacher and the student as being "in love" and caricaturize the press and the teacher's family as not being understanding.

After the teacher's release from his second conviction, the student,now an adult, petitions to be allowed to be with the teacher. They plan to marry and raise a family, and they're booked on every TV interview show that wants to tell the story of these "star crossed lovers".

Sound unreasonably fictitious? That's what I thought, too, until I saw yet another teaser for a sympathetic interview with twice convicted child molestor Mary Kay LeTourneau. Becuase she is a woman, she has been treated with kid gloves, sympathy, and a general feeling that she is a "victim". A male teacher in a similar situation would not be treated as kindly.

Nor should he.

The LeTourneau case has pointed up an interesting double standard in public perception. Ms. LeTourneau's actions were wrong in any light, and she does not deserve the celebrity status that has been afforded her for her actions. She has not once seen the wrongness of her actions, but has instead continued to live in her fairy tale world. And the media has been all too accomodating.

I am not among those who wish her well. Male sex offenders are held in some states far beyond their release dates if they don't comply with therapy that includes a full admission of the wrongness of their actions. Mary Kay LeTourneau; however, is treated as a star.