Does anyone see any problem in an 18 year old senior dating a 16 year old sophomore?
Nope, should it be a problem?
Not in the least.
I assume the boy is the senior and the girl is the sophmore?
I really don’t see any more problems with it than with any other teenage relationship.
I dated a freshman when I was a senior. I believe that that’s part of the deal in HS…
And now, I’m engaged to someone who woould have been in the third grade when I was a senior… :o
Yer pal,
Satan
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A two-year difference is not a problem. As Satan said, it’s pretty much standard procedure in HS.
My main concern would be if the 18-yr. old were my child. If the parents of the 16-yr. old wanted they could file statutory rape charges.
My neighbor is going through this right now. The whole situation is getting real ugly. He is sitting in county jail. I would make sure to meet the other parents, find out their opinion before deciding whether or not to approve or discourage the relationship.
Oh-my-Golly! He said dating, not necessarily having hard-n-heavy SEX. For rape charges, there needs to be sex. And, contrary to popular baby-boomer belief, every teen is not having sex with every date all the time. I got out of high school a few years ago, and I can tell you, quite honestly, that there are lots of teens in HS that are not sexually active. We ain’t rabbits, ya know.
Geez!
Infamus
I was just going to say a quick no, not a problem; until I saw Mac’s post. He(or she) does have a good point. I am assuming from your wording that you are talking about dating, and not that the 18yo is having sex with the 16yo. If you are talking about just dating, not sex, then no, I have no problem with it. The other thing to consider is where are they at in their lives? With both still in high school, they have the same life experiences to draw on, whereas with a high school student and someone in college or in the workforce, they have very different life experiences and have a much higher risk of having problems relating to each other because of that.
I know someone who is a freshman(15) and she is dating a senior. It may not be statutory rape that they have to worry about. Kissing and/or oral sex are considered to be sexual assaults and they can press charges.
Depending on the state law where you live, it may not be statutory rape. Here in Texas, if one person in a couple is over the age of majority, and the other is under the age of majority, sexual acts will only constitute statutory rape if the age difference is greater than 2 years. So, if they were in Texas, it would depend on when each of their birthdays falls in the year.
Another thing that depends on state law is who files the charges. Here in Texas, the parents of the younger child could not file any charges against the older one. All crimes here are considered to be against the state, and not the individual. All the parents could do would to be to notify the authorities, and then, it would be up to the prosecutor, and I imagine that that would be a fairly tough crime to prosecute (unless the parents of the younger kid had at one time walked in on them in the act).
In other words, check your state laws.
BTW, as a senior, I mostly dated sophomores.
So now I need to not only check age of my daughters friends but also what month they were born and this is just high school. Thought my answer was no problem, teach me to think!
whatever
Yes, you do want to check your laws regarding statutory rape. In PA, I believe there must be an age difference of four years. I remember finding this out when me (at 17) was “seeing” a guy who was about 20, so I was in the clear…not that my parents (or even his parents) even knew about it to wonder if statutory rape was being committed…
I think people here are getting a little worried over nothing. Granted, there’s always a chance that the parents of the 16yr old will get upset with the 18yr old and file some sort of charges (I don’t think that they’d stick in IL with that little of an age difference and the ages, but IMNAL (always wanted to use that acronym)) but the fact of the matter is that it almost never happens. If the 18yr old is some deviant who takes the 16yr old by force in the back of his van, that’s just rape plain and simple. But I don’t think that the “He corrupted my little girl!” line will get you far if you just don’t like the guy.
Anyway, I don’t see any issues with it since, as has been said, it’s pretty standard fare in high school. I’d say that dating within a group like that is common enough that few people blink at it. It happened all the time when I was in school and even in college, if you were both in school then one could be 23 and the other 18 or 19 and no one noticed. Yeah, there’s the whole “How much will they have in common and will it last after the 18yr old graduates and the 16yr old is still in HS?” issue, but either it works out or it doesn’t. You said dating, not planning a marriage.