Student-Molesting Teacher Says Critics Unfair

A 35-year-old teacher serving a jail term for having sex with a 13-year-old former student says she believes public criticism of her sentence is unfair.

Mary Kay LeTourneau says in a jailhouse interview with the television show “American Journal” that she also knows a lot of hard work lies ahead.

Mrs. LeTourneau was sentenced Nov. 14 to a suspended prison term of seven years and five months on condition that she submit to at least three years of psychiatric treatment.

After the sentencing, public letters and calls to radio talk shows said the sentence would have been harsher for a male teacher involved with a 13-year-old female student.

“What’s not fair is that my case can be pulled out of context and be compared out of context to that of a man in a similar situation,” Mrs. LeTourneau said. “I’m not a man, … and there is a difference.”

Mrs. LeTourneau and her student are the parents of a baby currently being cared for by the student’s mother.