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IU McKinney Professor Jennifer Drobac has called consent law “horribly flawed” in California. She was interviewed by radio station KPCC on November 13.

A 28-year-old math teacher at a Los Angeles middle school engaged in a six-month sexual relationship with a 14-year-old girl at the school. The teacher was arrested, tried, convicted, and sentenced to three years in prison.

Her family then filed a civil lawsuit against the district, Los Angeles Unified. The school’s lawyers have argued that she was mature enough to consent to having sex with the teacher, and introduced the girl’s sexual history into the trial as a part of their defense strategy.

California is one of several states where the criminal age of consent laws clash with the civil laws, Drobac said in the story, noting a minor can be a victim in a criminal case, but found at fault in a civil case related to the same crime.

"It doesn’t make sense," said Drobac. "The same parties, same behavior, same everything, consent is no defense in a criminal trial.  But the same set of facts in a civil prosecution, consent is a complete defense. How is that possible? It's not logical."

Drobac called L.A. Unified's courtroom tactics in the civil lawsuit "shocking." 

There is a link to the radio version of the story on the KPCC website.

Professor Drobac teaches sexual harassment law at IU McKinney. Her first textbook, Sexual Harassment Law: History, Cases and Theory, was published in 2005; a new edition is expected in 2014. She also is working on a book concerning adolescent neurological and psychosocial development and the law, Worldly But Not Yet Wise, for University of Chicago Press.