In this day and age, teachers can't seem to keep their hands off high school boys. A Nebraska teacher sentenced to 90 days in jail for making this young man's dreams come true.
Emily Lofing is a former teacher in Weeping Water, Nebraska at Nebraska City Middle School. She taught language arts, along with other things, if you know what I mean. She was married in 2014 when she had sex with a student on his 16th birthday. Her sentencing is complicated as she could serve up to a year, but with good behavior she will be released in 53 days. Additionally she will be on probation for two years.
Nebraska Teacher Sentenced
Lofing's attorney made a case for her that she simply had a mental breakdown. “For lack of a better terms, in her life, poof - she had a mental breakdown. She makes an incredibly horrible decision.”
The attorney also stated:
That’s the tragedy of mental illness. It doesn’t know demographics. It doesn’t know race. It doesn’t know age. It doesn’t know education, and, when mental illness strikes, it can sometimes do so without any warning. I would characterize it as, your honor, and I think the letters of support also entail that. They speak to a period of time when Ms. Lofing was living a double life. People who have known her for her whole entire life were shocked at this type of behavior.”
John Palmtag, the Deputy Otoe County Attorney, fired back, “I would urge the court in this matter to send a strong message to the defendant and send a message to the people of the state that we as a society won’t tolerate these sort of actions by our teachers in the classrooms. We won’t tolerate predatory acts among students.”
Judge John Steinheider of Otoe County Court pointed out that if this had happened one day sooner she would have been in even more trouble. Steinheider said, “This alleged indiscretion, I’ll say, took place on the victim's 16th birthday. You were less than 24 hours from a felony here.” He continued, “You send kids to school, to day care, to Bible school and you expect them to be treated with respect and be in safe places and you took that away from at least the victim in this instance.”
The age to consent is 16, according to Nebraska law. Lofing was charged with a misdemeanor of contributing to the delinquency of a minor.
Nebraska lawmakers are looking into a bill that would make it illegal for any teacher or person in a position of authority to have sex with 16 and 17 year olds as well.
She did succeed in one area, which was making this young man's dreams come true as well as making him the idol of all of his friends. This is not the first time this has happened and it won't be the last.
