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Legislation would make sex between students, any school employee illegal

TIFFANY L. PARKS
Special to the Legal News

Published: September 30, 2014

Rep. Christina Hagan has said taxpayers deserve peace of mind when thinking about the safety of sending their children to school.

“I want to ensure that disturbing actions are not deemed acceptable in our classrooms,” she said.

Hagan, R-Alliance, is sponsoring a bill that would close a “glaring loophole” in state law that allows employees in public and nonpublic districts, who are not teachers or administrators, to engage in sexual conduct with a minor student without facing criminal charges.

“It may surprise some of you to learn that in the state of Ohio you can not send pornographic images of yourself to a student as a non-authority employee of our school systems, but a person in that position may currently engage in sexual activity with students above 16 without legal repercussions,” she said.

“Therefore, at the behest of many county prosecutors across the great state of Ohio, I am (offering) legislation that closes the misfortunate unbalance in our law.”

House Bill 241 would prohibit school employees from engaging in sexual activity with students regardless of their position.

“A broader context needs to exist in law dealing with sexual relationships between students and school employees,” Hagan said, noting that under current guidelines, an individual employed by a school who is a “person in authority” is not permitted to engage in sexual conduct with a student enrolled in that school.

“Unfortunately this leaves out a large group of employees that are considered ‘non-authority’ and therefore are not legally restrained from engaging in sexual activity with students. This group includes lunch ladies, janitors and many other miscellaneous school employees.”

In stumping for the proposed legislation, Hagan highlighted the situation that inspired the bill’s drafting.

“Stacy St. Jean-Baron, a cafeteria worker at a high school in Stark County, was found to be engaging in sexual conduct with six male students in 2011,” she said.

“However, as a lunch lady, St. Jean-Baron could not be prosecuted because the students were above the age of 16, which is the age of consent in Ohio. To the chagrin of the Stark County prosecutors, the parents and myself, there is no law prohibiting Ms. St. Jean-Baron’s sexual misconduct.”

St. Jean-Baron was later sentenced to 22 months in prison for sending nude photographs of herself to the students.

“Her status as nonacademic staff enabled Ms. St. Jean-Baron to slip through a loophole and prevented the Stark County prosecutors from pursuing additional charges,” Hagan said.

“My intention is to ensure that our parents and students can rest assured that they are safe to learn without concern of such interactions occurring without legal ramifications.”

In addition to provisions targeted at public and nonpublic school district employees, HB 241 also would prohibit any employee of an institution of higher education who is not a teacher, administrator, coach or other person in authority with the institution from engaging in sexual conduct with a minor who is at least four years younger than the employee.

The proposed legislation was passed by the House in an 86-0 vote and has been referred to the Senate Criminal Justice Committee.

“My hope is that by passing this bill into law we will have deterred past behaviors of sexual engagement with students from occurring in the future,” Hagan said.

“Students have enough complexities during their youth developmental years and the last thing they need is a peculiar encounter that could potentially devastate them or leave them in disarray during their educational experience in Ohio.”

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