CDZ Grooming vs Romance is there any actual legal definition?

[grbb]

Authorities: Teen-teacher relationship not a 'romance'

I think the girl is too young. However, I do not see that she is worse off picking that old teacher as opposed to some stupid 18 years old boy friend.

I think we need clear and consistent rules. They can't just elope like that without parents permission and so on. But otherwise, who is government deciding what is romance and what is grooming? We all woo girls to lose their skirts and none of us are completely honest.

 

[usmbguest5318]

From the article:

....relationship between a 15-year-old girl and a 50-year-old....

Having raised four kids, along with having once been both 15 and 30, it's my believe that nearly all 15 year-olds think they are 30, and in some quarters it's said that "50 is the new 30." LOL

Moving abruptly away from making light of something that is no laughing matter...What the hell were several people who were directly or indirectly involved in the matter thinking?

• Maury County District Attorney, Brent Cooper --> "Grooming" my ass! Grooming young people to have productive/successful futures and become ethical and keen thinking adults is, of course,what teachers do; however, when their actions to those ends are indeed grooming, they are primarily altruistic. That is, the primary beneficiary is the student, the teacher receiving nothing in return other than a wage and the personal satisfaction of having done their job well.
  
  An adult's "trying to convince a [teenager] that being in a [non-platonic] relationship" with them is not at all aptly described as "grooming," for that term's neutrality grossly understates the nature of what the video makes clear the DA meant. It's at the least "battening" or, at worst, exploitative inculcation. One must presume Maury County citizens are better served by their inarticulate DA's jurisprudence than they are by his renderings for lay audiences.
• The girl's parents --> Just how dissociated with their child must those parents be to not be aware of what was going on between her and Cummins? Illicit as it seems, it's plausible that Cummins may have in some ways been better suited for raising the girl than are her obviously derelict parents. One must hope the child is returned and placed in the custody of vastly more responsible parental figures and role models.

To answer your title question, I don't know whether "romance" and "grooming" have explicit legal definitions. It's hard, however, to envision there being a need for such things. Frankly, I think it absurd that DA Cooper made his remarks in a way that opened a door leading to your or others even thinking that there might be such need.


As an aside:

MSN did a horrible job reporting that story. Reading the text, and not also or instead watching the video, literate readers would perceive that the DA was asserting that Maury County prosecutors and police mistakenly construed the relationship as a positive mentoring one, and not one having the manipulative nature. The only clue the latter might be the case is the incongruity of the whole damn article except and its final two sentences, one of which is a caption.​