MovieChat Forums > Summer School (1987) Discussion > That 16 y.o. girl just moved right in wi...

That 16 y.o. girl just moved right in with teacher, and nobody blinked

posted 13 years ago by Eric-1226
12 replies | jump to latest

...except for Kirstie Alley's character, who raised an eyebrow. Sort of.

Yes, I know, this is quite the daffy movie and requires maximum suspension of disbelief from start to finish, but still... can you imagine such an event happening in the real world??!

[–] ltoledo23 13 years ago

Back then sure. He was just a teacher helping out a homeless student. In today's prude, overly conservative US, absolutely not. He would be charged with some sex crime, have his name dragged through the mud and lose his profession.

[–] novastar_6 13 years ago

Really, I mean who was either of them going to tell? Who would find out?

[–] Eric-1226 13 years ago

Oh, I would imagine prying eyes and wagging tongues would have done the job. Gossip spreads like wildfire, you know. It would have been all over town in a matter of days, if not hours. The teacher did the wise thing by sending her packing.

[–] novastar_6 13 years ago

Her own family didn't care and her friends either didn't know or also didn't care, it was only because Robin came in unannounced that she found out.

[–] 13 years ago

[deleted]

[–] Wuchakk 11 years ago

It's supposed to show the naivete and goodheartedness of Shoop. Anyone with a brain could see that Pam had the hots for him, but he just saw her as a student in need and he was there for her. When the truth finally dawns on him he nicely insists that she goes.

Despite that, I agree that it was a stupid thing to do and it would've spread like wildfire in real life (the girl would've spilt the beans) and got Shoop into huge trouble.

[–] bizzniss 11 years ago

If Shoop was a WOMAN and the student was a male teen. Then no one would even care in real life.

[–] Doc80 10 years ago

You are naive yourself if you believe that that scenario wouldn't cause a problem today.

[–] [deleted] 3 years ago

Nope. I think its been proven and recorded otherwise.

[–] [deleted] 3 years ago

“ ...except for Kirstie Alley's character, who raised an eyebrow.”

To be fair though, raised eyebrows is Kirstie Alley’s permanent expression.

https://www.cheatsheet.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/Kirstie-Alley-1.jpg

[–] AmericaILoveU (972) a year ago

Very Sexy

[–] strntz (12255) a year ago

Yes, I know, this is quite the daffy movie and requires maximum suspension of disbelief from start to finish, but still... can you imagine such an event happening in the real world??!

That sub plot was a bit odd, but just a little bit. Sound weird? Not really. Teachers having sex with students didn't seem to become a thing until Mary Kay Letourneau raped a 12 year old boy, an incident which became nationwide network headline news for a long long time.

Why that case suddenly being a big story when this type of thing was nothing new? Several reasons - Letourneau was very pretty, very prim and proper, very married, and she raped a 12 year old. There is no better definition of tabloid fodder. Many school districts immediately updated their rules involving teachers and students, and some states changed/updated their laws as well.

Right after the Letourneau case came to light, other cases involving both female and male teachers suddenly were being picked up by the news, both local and national. It seemed like an epidemic suddenly sprang up with the reality being that this was hardly a unique case.

But this film is about 10 years prior to the Letourneau case. If this film was made after the Letourneau case happened, I very much doubt they'd have put that scene in with Pam staying with Schoop.