Letters to the Editor
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May-June romances
Snarling Coyote has a good point. I know many happily married couples in academia who have had long and productive professional as well as personal partnerships, and who met when one was a student enrolled in a class taught by the other. When universities have tried to formulate "sexual harrassment" policies in recent decades, they have often had to tread carefully so as not to denigrate the marriages of many senior faculty members. An eighteen year old high school graduate is legally an adult, and a former teacher is, well, a FORMER teacher. Let's not assume, furthermore, that the teacher is always the instigator of these relationships. Male students have been known not only to make advances to female instructors, but to be quite persistent about them.
That said, however, it should be added that a teacher or professor doesn't stop having authority over a student the minute he gets his diploma. She still might need to write letters of recommendation for him for college admissions or jobs, and wouldn't want to be accused of conflict of interest. So one should always think very hard and carefully about accepting this sort of a romantic advance, even if it's technically ethical and legal. LW's problem appears to be that she didn't think carefully enough beforehand, and then had panicky second thoughts. She's quite young, so let's hope she has learned from this experience.