An Oklahoma couple is upset that their son’s rapist got away with what they call a “slap on the wrist.”
Erin Kathleen Queen, a former English teacher at Charles Page High School in Sand Springs, was given three years probation, a $ 600 fine, and banned from teaching after she took advantage of her 17-year-old student.
The victim’s mom, Shasta Belty, claims the punishment is not enough. Shasta Belty and her husband Adam Belty hoped to pin the teacher down with a tougher charge and perhaps some jail time.
“I cussed. I cried. I totally disagreed with it,” Shasta told Tulsa World about the sentence.
The Beltys say they began worrying about their son when he didn’t come home on March 17, 2012. He told his parents he was staying at a friend’s house. When the teen picked up the phone, he told his mom that he was in a Candlewood Suites room, with a 27-year-old lady he still called “Miss.”
“He was reluctant to tell me but then he told me he was with Ms. Queen, Erin Queen. And I thought that name sounds familiar. And he said mom, ‘It’s my 5th hour English teacher.’ And I died as a parent,” Shasta told ABC.
Cops caught the teacher red-handed in the hotel room at about 5:30 a.m.
Queen was initially booked into jail on a complaint of first-degree rape. She was formally charged with second-degree rape and a misdemeanor charge of contributing to the deliquency of a minor. The misdemeanor was linked to reports that she’d given the teenager vodka.
But last week, the case was thrown out and the charges were dismissed. As part of a new case about the incident, Queen pleaded guilty to a felony count of contributing to the delinquency of a minor.
The age of consent in Oklahoma is 16. But because Queen was the teenager’s teacher, different rules apply. According to state laws, a sexual act is considered rape if the victim is a student between 16 and 18 years of age and the suspect is an employee of the student’s school system.
The Sand Springs district attorney stood behind Queen’s conviction.
“We believe a felony conviction holds this teacher accountable under the circumstances of this case. After speaking to the victim and the family, our office decided this was in the best interests of justice,” the office said in a statement.
But the Beltys say Queen was treated differently because she was a woman. They say their son suffered greatly after news about the encounter spread among his peers. The teen was reportedly ostracized by other students during his last year of high school.
“[The prosecutor] was under the impression that we were okay with a conviction as long as she never taught again. Well, we were okay with a conviction – of the second-degree rape … or something that represents the sexual misconduct,” Shasta said.
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