See me after class

Some students find they’re more attentive in class when they’re hot for teacher. But this sort of romance should be left for soap opera storylines and classic rock songs.

Last week the Washington Post drew fire for an opinion column by Betsy Karasik, who insisted that, following the outcome of a rape case in Montana, we should rethink the criminality of teacher-student sex.

The case centered around teacher Stacey Rambold, who initiated a sexual relationship with his student, Cherice Moralez, in 2008. After the situation became public, Rambold resigned and participated in a sex-offender treatment program. In 2010, Moralez committed suicide.

Rambold was sentenced to 30 days in prison.

Moralez’s parents claimed that after knowledge of the affair made headlines, their daughter fell into an “irreversible depression” due to “severe emotional distress, humiliation and embarrassment.”

But decriminalizing teacher-student sex isn’t the answer.

Girls and boys who are seduced and raped by their teachers should be able to seek justice.

It seems obvious that even if a 14-year-old girl seems “older than her chronological age” or “in control of the situation,” as Judge G. Todd Baugh of the Rambold case insisted, she is still 14-years-old.

Consensual sex between students and teachers is a myth that Karasik is promoting at the expense of student safety. Educators should not be able to rape students with impunity.

Teachers are responsible for their students’ well-being, and part of that responsibility includes, you know, not having sex with them.

Since cases that seem as cut and dry as this one are causing confusion, we’d like to clarify — teacher-student sex, even at the collegiate level, is unacceptable.

Maybe you’ve been trolling ratemyprofessors.com on the lookout for “hot” profs to keep you awake during lectures. If learning from hotties helps, go for it.

Having a crush on your professor is fine. Professors reciprocating this attention is not fine.

At least as long as they’re your professor.

Sometimes there is a genuine love connection between university professor and student. That’s great and magical and good for you — whatever. We’re going to die alone.

But wait to do anything until the semester is over. Three months aren’t going to kill you or the flame of your eternal love.

Having sex with a student — whose grade point average you control, who might be relying on you for letters of recommendation or job opportunities — is dishonest, unethical and a blatant abuse of power.

Professors are the professionals. They are the one with the job and the tenure and the published research. They have power over the minds they are melding, and using this power to get laid is not something that should be accepted on this campus.

Teachers and college professors share a responsibility to help young minds develop. Sex deals with different body parts altogether.

And if a student comes onto you? It is your responsibility as an education professional to politely turn him or her down.

The morality of sex with students gets iffier when both teacher and student are full-fledged adults. But teachers should avoid intimacy with students just like the president shouldn’t receive blowjobs from an intern.

There’s a line. You just crossed it.

With only one life to live, maybe don’t take the risk.

Follow the Editorial Board on Twitter @ids_opinion.