WA - Mary Kay Letourneau and Vili Fualaau

[Dontknow?]

NBC News
@NBCNews
·
10m

BREAKING: Mary Kay Letourneau, the former teacher who was convicted of 2nd-degree rape of a child after engaging in sexual relations with her then 12-year-old student, has died of cancer, her attorney says. https://nbcnews.to/3e9rZHN

 

[Lilibet]

Link to story:

Mary Kay Letourneau, teacher jailed for raping student she later married, dies

 

[Emi]

Sad end but let her rest in peace!

 

[Lilibet]

“She’s still in touch with her four older children from her first marriage. And they are a part of her life now,” Abramson said. “It’s pretty unimaginable … that 20 years later, you have her and her kids and Vili and her older kids all together as one extended family. It’s pretty remarkable what she has done.”

The Faulaau and the Letourneau families’ released a joint statement on Tuesday:

We are deeply saddened to share the very difficult news that our beloved Mary passed away peacefully on July 6th 2020 after a six month battle since being diagnosed with stage IV, or metastatic, cancer. Mary fought tirelessly against this terrible disease. It is in that spirit that we ask for privacy and respect for our desire to focus on the road ahead for all of us who make up Mary’s collective family. We ask that our boundaries and need for privacy be honored with continued kindness and understanding.

Mary Kay Letourneau Dead: 5 Fast Facts You Need to Know | Heavy.com

 

[Sillybilly]

Mary Kay Letourneau, teacher convicted of having sex with student, dead at 58

 

[meanmaryjean]

I feel badly for her children who will now be faced with her crimes being her legacy in the media. They are innocent victims.

 

[Seattle1]

KOAA News5@KOAA

Mary Kay Letourneau, a former teacher who was sentenced for an illicit relationship with a then sixth-grade student, has died at the age of 58, her attorney told NBC News.
Mary Kay Letourneau dead at age 58

10:00 PM · Jul 7, 2020·SocialNewsDesk

________________________________________

There's was a lot more to MKL than her crime and I think why her defense team including Anne Bremner stayed close to her. Since early childhood, her life was very tragic. Condolences to her children.

Mary Kay Letourneau - Wikipedia

 

[LadyL]

KOAA News5@KOAA

Mary Kay Letourneau, a former teacher who was sentenced for an illicit relationship with a then sixth-grade student, has died at the age of 58, her attorney told NBC News.
Mary Kay Letourneau dead at age 58
________________________________________

There's was a lot more to MKL than her crime and I think why her defense team including Anne Bremner stayed close to her. Since early childhood, her life was very tragic. Condolences to her children.

Mary Kay Letourneau - Wikipedia

[bbm]

if she were male, would we care about her 'tragic' childhood?'
I know I sure don't
I do feel bad for her children though

 

[Charlot123]

Mary Kay Letourneau’s best friend speaks out on her affair with 12-year-old: ‘Love had nothing to do with it’

A new documentary revisits the salacious case that both shocked and captivated the nation.

nypost.com

In the article, MKL best friend provided a great explanation to this whole situation.

From her story, it appears that Mary Kay Letourneau was disappointed by all men in her life, starting with her dad, once her role model. So she took a 12-year-old boy who was a wax in her hands, and molded him into a perfect partner, the one she wanted to have for herself.

She didn't think of Vili. He never graduated from HS. He was the father at fifteen. He worked as a disk jockey. Yes, he and Mary divorced after many years, but they still would meet. Vili still lives his life molded by Mary Kay, the way she wanted it.

I think ultimately, it is the biggest problem in such relationships. And it is not about physical side alone, far from it. When Vili made the decision to wait for MK Letourneau till she'd get out of prison, was he emotionally free to make that decision? I think, not.

RIP, Mary Kay. I think even if her story's main role is to show why such relationships are morally wrong, even if they are totally consensual, she did not live her life in vain.

I am very sorry for Vili because he lost Mary Kay that was his everything. It is sad that he missed on so many things in life because of such an early love. I hope that one day, he'll be psychologically free, even if it comes later.

 

[ChatteringBirds]

. I think even if her story's main role is to show why such relationships are morally wrong, even if they are totally consensual,

At 13 (or 14 or 15, etc.) you can't consent to a relationship with an adult, nevermind a teacher, though. It wasn't even consensual.

 

[Charlot123]

At 13 (or 14 or 15, etc.) you can't consent to a relationship with an adult, nevermind a teacher, though. It wasn't even consensual.

You mean, from the legal standpoint. Vili would likely consider in consensual. (Some articles mention him saying that he initiated it.) The way i think, however: even at 17, even if unforced, the relationship may not be fully emotionally consensual (remembering Oona Chaplin. Her life was another example of being molded into the perfect wife, although she'd probably disagree.) I am viewing it not from the legal standpoint now. I am thinking about moral and physical dependency that is intentionally and selfishly created by the older partner in such relationships.

 

[ChatteringBirds]

You mean, from the legal standpoint. Vili would likely consider in consensual. (Some articles mention him saying that he initiated it.)

Also a mental and emotional standpoint. Young teenagers sometimes think they know what they want or what's best for themselves, even when it's absolutely not, and they do and will suffer mentally for it if everyone around them just allows it, even if they never see that.

It's up to the adult to say, "No! I am not interested in a teenager, and that isn't what's best for you." He should have been free to focus on school, hobbies, college or learning a trade, dating someone closer to his own age, etc., not becoming a dad at 14 (?) from a much-older woman.

I believe it would negatively affect someone's mental and emotional development to be taken advantage of like that, even if they couldn't see it.

 

[Charlot123]

.OK, I am not planning to fixate on the laws, but maybe more on dual standards the case had shown. They, these dual standards, have an obvious reason: statutory rape of women may increase the rate of teenage pregnancies, and hence, any society is protecting its females and itself. However, “sexual initiation of men” by older, experienced women was so common through the history that as I heard from one blunt boss, “a boy won’t cry over it. He’d call a friend and say, “Man, did I get lucky this weekend!”” And indeed, this trend gets less attention than sexual abuse/exploitation of underage girls. MLK’s case gained traction only because of the huge age difference and the fact that she was in power (his teacher).

Hence, I am trying to think of the true value of MKL’s story. In the article about statutory rape, I found a phrase: “A 2006 review of scientific research found that the majority of men who had sex with women as underaged boys hold a positive reaction about the relationship, with a third of them being neutral and less than 5% being negative toward it. However, these men expressed slightly higher levels of psychological distress than men who had not had these experiences. The authors suggested that societal views may disincline men from recognising negative or abusive elements of the relationships.”

 

[LinasK]

“They’ve been having issues for a while now,” says a source close to the couple. “They tried to work through them, but it didn’t work. They’re still committed to being good parents to their children.”

There is no third party involved in the relationship, the source says.

Mary Kay Letourneau Separates from Vili Fualaau

Issues? Ya think? Considering that she raped him.

 

[LinasK]

At 13 (or 14 or 15, etc.) you can't consent to a relationship with an adult, nevermind a teacher, though. It wasn't even consensual.

Exactly! I have no sympathy for her. Didn't follow her death, I doubt she went to heaven, but now Villi is free of her influence.

 

[Charlot123]

Exactly! I have no sympathy for her. Didn't follow her death, I doubt she went to heaven, but now Villi is free of her influence.

You know what? Vili commands respect. He actually behaved like a man. Waited for her, his daughters love him. MKL and VF charged a lot for their interviews but now that he is alone, he is very quiet. He took a good care of MKL when she had cancer, although they were divorced. And - he never blamed her, only opened up to his best friends. And situations were not easy for him, especially when MKL’s kids from the first marriage visited them (they were of the same age.) Likewise, his mother tried to help by raising his kids with MKL. I like it that he doesn’t present him as the victim of circumstances.

 

[LinasK]

Also a mental and emotional standpoint. Young teenagers sometimes think they know what they want or what's best for themselves, even when it's absolutely not, and they do and will suffer mentally for it if everyone around them just allows it, even if they never see that.

It's up to the adult to say, "No! I am not interested in a teenager, and that isn't what's best for you." He should have been free to focus on school, hobbies, college or learning a trade, dating someone closer to his own age, etc., not becoming a dad at 14 (?) from a much-older woman.

I believe it would negatively affect someone's mental and emotional development to be taken advantage of like that, even if they couldn't see it.

Thank you for re-iterating what should be obvious. An adult(MKL) who took advantage of a teenager (Villi). Teenagers CANNOT legally give consent, even if it what they think they want.