When a teacher is found guilty of having a sexual relationship to a student and put behind bars, somebody often asks the question: Isn't the age of consent 16? Why do they arrest the teachers instead of just firing them when the students are 18?
The answer is: There is an Alabama law called "school employee having sexual contact with a student under 19" and it does not need to consider the age-of-consent law. The idea behind it, of course, is that school employees can have higher levels of trust, power and proximity to students.
With similar logic in mind, the Alabama Legislature passed a bill last week that would make it a felony for clergy to have sexual interactions with anyone younger than 19, reports AL.com's Rebecca Griesbach.
So if you're minister or a youth pastor and you take the next step with an 18-year-old, under this law, you won't just lose your job in a scandal. You might end up spending a lot of time in a prison cell.
The House bill was sponsored by Helena Republican Leigh Hulsey, and the Senate version was from Birmingham Democrat Roger Smitherman.
Alabama Baptist State Convention President Greg Davis said he expects Gov. Kay Ivey to sign the bill into law and that it'll send a serious warning to those who might be grooming a teen who's under their church authority. “It’s a shame that it has come to this point of evil but sadly it has.”