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A former teacher in Alabama is fighting for what she believes is her “constitutional right” to have sex with students.

31-year-old former teacher Charli Jones Parker was convicted for having sexual intercourse with two male 16-year-old students while she was still a teacher at Pickens Academy. Tuscaloosa News reports that Parker now wants her case overturned, arguing that a law prohibiting sex with students is supposedly unconstitutional.

Parker’s seemingly incredulous appeal comes after a Morgan County Circuit Court judge issued a ruling in August saying that the law violated an equal protection clause which gives teachers the same treatment in court as other professions. Parker’s lawyer is pushing in a brief filed Tuesday that her conviction should be appealed on the same grounds.

The law being contested by Parker prohibits school employees from having sex with students under the age of 19, irrespective of where the student is enrolled.

Parker’s lawyer, Virginia Buck, is insisting that Alabama law supposedly does not make it a crime for members of other occupations to have consensual sex with 16, 17, and 18-year-olds, “even when there’s a position of trust.” Buck argued that teachers are being “unfairly singled out” in such cases.

The age of consent in Alabama is set at 16.

Parker pleaded guilty in August to having sex with teens, including more than a dozen times with one boy between the period of October 2014 and March 2016. She was given a three-year prison sentence for her crimes.

Should her conviction be overturned, her husband will also most likely benefit from it as he himself is facing a similar case than that of his wife. 33-year-old James Franklin Parke III pleaded guilty to sexual contact with a former student. He is set to be sentenced in June. He has yet to appeal his case.

If Parker gets her twisted way, however, the question on many parents’ minds is, who is to protect their children from predators such as the Parker couple?

Source:

http://www.tuscaloosanews.com/news/20180206/pickens-teacher-appealing-conviction-in-sex-case