What a difference a mere 30 years makes

First, this story:

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (Reuters) - A California high school teacher was arraigned on Monday at a Sacramento court accused of having sex with a student in a car as her two-year child was strapped into the back seat.

Margaret De Barraicua, 30, a teacher trainee, was charged with four counts of unlawful sexual intercourse with a minor, a 16-year-old student. The married woman was caught having sex in the late afternoon last week in what was apparently a consensual agreement, officials said.

This is weird on so many levels, but I want to say, uh, Margaret? if a two-year-old isn't talking yet, it's usually because he can't think of anything to say. No witnesses, okay?

But other than that, the whole infantilization of young adults kind of bothers me. When we make no distinction between a sixteen-year-old boy enjoying a sixteen-year-old boy's more common fantasy and a toddler victimized by Bad Touch (tm), what message are we sending? Do we really need to create yet another generation of grown-up helpless children?

Please understand that I am in no way advocating the practice of authority figures trolling the junior and senior class for playthings. That said, doesn't it bother you that if they were filming a remake of Summer of '42 today, it would end in the arrest and stoning death of the beautiful and tragic young widow? (Ooh, gotta call my agent.)