School is supposed to be safe. Make it so.
I feel for the mother of the minor 16 year old girl accusing Baptist Pastor, Norman Willacey, of having an inappropriate sexual relationship with her child, a student under his tutelage and guidance for years at the Belmopan Baptist High School. She has appealed to all the people in authority she believes can help her seek justice but sadly, it’s been slow in coming. As of right now, the Baptist Church still hasn’t made a decision despite the mountain of evidence piled against him, including his own strange confession.
What I have an issue with is the proposal to raise the age of consent from 16 to 18. I believe that this is not the issue which needs to be confronted, not now, not ever. This is a knee jerk action designed to put a mother’s feelings of frustration and helplessness to rest. It is a move that, if pursued, will only create a false sense of security for parents because the truth is, predators don’t give a damn about laws. They will do the do no matter what. What will happen is you are going to criminalize the normal behaviour of young girls and boys who are experimenting with their sexuality all the while ignoring the real problem we face: abuse of power by people in authority.
This case is not about the sexual relationship between the pastor and the young girl. That is actually the symptom of a much larger, more entrenched societal attitude towards women and others deemed “less than”. It is about the power differential that exists between anyone who has any sort of authority over another: employer vs employee; minister vs voter; pastor vs believer; parent vs child; teacher vs student; adult vs minor. When circumstances create an imbalance of power, it is imperative that the person with perceived power exercise extreme caution NOT to abuse it. In other words, he/she must behave in an ethical manner so as to not exploit someone perceived to be the more vulnerable in the relationship.
How would changing the age of consent do anything about any of that? We need to understand that this is not about sex at all. It is about an adult abusing trust that was placed in his authority and position in the community. He didn’t only hurt this girl and her family, he hurt everyone who ever sought his guidance and revered his intentions. What we need are better sexual harassment laws period.
Please don’t jump on this bandwagon. I apologize to mom in advance but I firmly stand by this assertion.
Twocanview LLC 
I believe that your assumptions are true about the age of consent. laws should never be passed just because of an incident, because it never works out they way it is intended in the long run. In this case our young people will be criminalize for the obious. what i don’t understand though is what excatly are you venting about is it the law or what actually happened. do we know exactly what happened yet, or are choosing sides based on feelings and hurt. lets not jump to conclusion yet and judge before we have all the facts, seeing that these are very serious allegations (though not a crime according to the law). lets pray for these two families because it will really be a stressful time for both. May they both find grace to overcome regardless of what the outcome is.
Because of his own admission there is no question he was having this relationship with this young lady.
FAC
exactly…there are cases in the US where this has not worked the way people intended…as in young couples have been prosecuted so that the male goes to jail even though the female partner has the consent of parents and or has had a child with the young man….how does something like that do anything to protect children? the real issue is abuse of trust and position
interesting, our minds seem to be in sync… here’s my earlier comment (still awaiting approval) on Channel 5: Yes, change the law… but NOT to raise the age of consent… because kids are gonna be kids… the law needs to be changed with an amendment regarding AGE differential (criminal offense if there’s more than 3 years age difference, IF one person is under age 18)… and special criminal provisions for those who ABUSE their of positions of trust, power and authority… that includes teachers, scout leaders, pastors, police, clergy, doctors, etc…. and those changes should be NON-discriminatory as to gender.