Who gets jail terms of seven and half years? People who commit violent offences like armed robbery, those found guilty of culpable driving, people convicted of manslaughter and even, if there are enough mitigating circumstances, those who commit murder. You get the picture — seven and a half years is a serious punishment reserved for extremely serious crime.

Does a 28-year-old school teacher who has a same s-x relationship with a 14-year-old student over a period of two years deserve the same jail time as the armed robber or the drunken person who kills another while driving? Yes, according to a Queensland District Court judge who last week imposed a seven and a half year jail term on Brisbane teacher Amanda Thompson, without even setting a minimum term that Ms Thompson must serve before being eligible for parole.

Ms Thompson and the student indulged in mutual m-sturbation, oral s-x, sleepovers and weekend trips away. The student had a history of eating and other behavioral problems, but according to lawyers for Ms Thompson, her grades and performance at school actually improved during the time of the relationship.

Even allowing for the fact that the courts take a dim view of teachers who abuse their position with children, this sentence seems seriously over the top.

That Ms Thompson can consider herself treated very harshly indeed is evident if one compares recent sentences handed down in similar cases around Australia. Here’s a sample:

August 2004: Victoria — Male teacher aged 29 has s-xual relationship with student aged 15. Relationship includes s-xual intercourse. Sentenced to 3 and a half years imprisonment with a minimum term of 2 years and 3 months;

May 2005: Victoria — Victoria’s Court of Appeal increases a sentence to 2 years and 8 months with all but 6 months suspended for a female teacher aged 36 who had 2 month s-xual relationship with a 15 year-old male student;

May 2008: Victoria — Male teacher aged 33 has an affair with a 15 year old student and receives 34 month term of imprisonment with 16 months suspended;

October 2008: Western Australia — 35 year old female teacher s-xual relationship with a 14 year-old male student receives 27 months imprisonment (currently on appeal to reduce sentence).

The way the law in Australia deals with student teacher s-xual relationships is, in some respects, simplistic. It regards all of them as inherently evil and worthy of the most severe sanction our society can impose — the deprivation of liberty. The idea that all such relationships, irrespective of the circumstances and the position of the parties involved, must always receive the condemnation of society, is in some respects a case of moral panic.

How else can one explain the handing down of a seven and a half year sentence to a teacher for an inappropriate relationship when a person convicted of an aggravated r-pe which ruins the life of a victim gets a similar deal?