Story Archive

Modern Family Values II

“We made a plan. The only way to keep us together was to have a baby,” said a 14-year-old boy who got his school teacher pregnant when he was 13. Mary Kay LeTourneau, 35, a teacher at Shorewood Elementary School in Burien, Wash., met the boy when he was in the second grade. When her husband discovered what was going on he left, taking their four children. The boy’s mother is bringing up the baby girl. LeTourneau has pleaded guilty to second-degree child rape and is facing seven years in prison. In an interview, she said her sexual relationship with the boy seemed “natural” to her. “What didn’t seem natural was that there was a law forbidding such a natural thing.” LeTourneau’s “strict Catholic” father, former Republican Rep. John Schmitz of Orange County, Calif., was known for pulling his children out of school anytime there were sex education classes scheduled. He resigned in 1983 when it was revealed he had a mistress and two illegitimate children. (RC/AP) ...“What a man sows, that shall he and his relations reap.” —Clarissa Graves (1892–1985), British poet.