News Archive

Professor Jennifer Drobac’s commentary on the case against the Los Angeles Unified School District, in which a judge ruled that the district was not liable regarding a sexual relationship that began between a middle school teacher and a 14-year-old student, was also featured in People magazine. 

When the relationship became known, the teacher was arrested, tried, convicted, and sentenced to three years in prison.

The 14-year-old’s family then filed a civil lawsuit against the district. 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.

"It doesn’t make sense," Professor Drobac says in the story. "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.”

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.