Another Teacher - Student Affair, Meet Rachel Burkhart

News reports out of Lenoir City, Tennessee just outside of Knoxville this morning are steaming with the news of yet another teacher student love affair. Rachel Burkhart was a teacher at Lenoir City High School and has resigned because of a relationship with an 18 year old student. It is unclear if the teacher student affair was with a male or female student.

Rachel Burkhart was a teacher in the school's Vocational department leading students through classes such as Agriscience, Livestock Management, and Greenhouse Management. There also has to be some real irony here as well in that the announcement came during teacher appreciation week. Maybe this brings a whole new meaning to "teacher appreciation"? (sorry, couldn't pass that one up!)

Seems like this is almost becoming old hat kind of news now, another teacher-student love affair. In this case Rachel Burkhart, 25, was having a teacher student affair an 18 year old student (stories don't specify whether it was a male or female, i guess we have to wonder in this day and age). Tennessee authorities will not pursue any charges because the student was an adult during the affair.

In a similar story, Amy McElhenney was a 25 year old Spanish teacher at Hebron High School, in Carrollton, Texas in 2006. Just days before school was out, it was revealed that she was engaged in a teacher student affair with an 18 year old male student. She was arrested and charged with having an inappropriate relationship with a student, a second-degree felony in Texas. She's looking at up to 20 years for her teacher student affair.

So who's got it right? Texas or Tennessee? Is a teacher student affair between two otherwise consenting adults a crime? What happened to keeping the government out of our bedrooms? Or on the other hand, why aren't our children being protected? And what is that is driving all these female teachers into the arms of their high school students? I don't know.

In the case of Rachel Burkhart from Lenoir City High School, Lenoir City Police Chief Don White says their department is not even investigating the teacher student affair because the student was an adult during the teacher student affair.

Lenoir City School Superintendent Wayne Miller has reported the teacher student affair to state child protective services and state education officials. I suppose we'll have to wait and see if there are any further consequences for Rachel Burkhart resulting from her teacher student love affair.