Kentucky Atheist Teacher @ChrisRenfrow Wants to Repeal Statutory Rape Laws?

Posted on Comments

The statutory age of consent in Kentucky is 16, the same as in Florida, where accused sex offender Kaitlyn Hunt is in jail awaiting trial for her lesbian affair with a 14-year-old girl. The “Free Kate” online crusade that Hunt’s parents started in May argues that Hunt, who was an 18-year-old high school senior at the time of her crimes, is a victim of homophobic prejudice. Hunt’s supporters say she should not be prosecuted because she and the younger girl were “peers,” and that having sex with a 14-year-old was merely a “high school romance.” So . . .

Say hello to a high school English teacher who got into a Twitter argument about whether sex with 14-year-olds should be illegal:

Self-described “proud atheist” Chris Renfrow teaches at Fern Creek Traditional High School in Louisville, Kentucky, and seems to have an oddly contemptuous attitude toward statutory rape laws:





After this Twitter argument had continued a while, someone started CC’ing me into the argument, along with Jeanette Runyon, who has been a real warrior in the fight to stop the “Free Kate” campaign to overturn Florida’s age-of-consent law. When someone in the argument pointed out that Renfrow is a high school teacher, I tried to warn him that he had wandered into a minefield, i.e., “Like, maybe this isn’t exactly a smart use of social media for you, hint, hint.”

Rather than take heed of his best interests, however, Renfrow then began to spew ad hominem attacks. Well, OK, then . . .

[DELETED: See update below]

Perhaps Kentucky’s Most Famous Atheist School Teacher™ would like to explain to the parents, taxpayers and school board members in Louisville why having sex with 14-year-olds shouldn’t be regarded as an actual crime, because, y’know, “grey area” and stuff.

[DELETED: See second update below]

The greatest thing about the First Amendment? Arrogant fools have the right to expose themselves as idiots, and then to whine like little bitches when they get called out for their foolishness.

UPDATE: According to Renfrow’s LinkedIn profile, he was recently laid off from his teaching job and is now seeking employment in the retail field, so I’ve deleted the contact information for his former employers. We wish Mr. Renfrow luck in seeking a retail position. Maybe they’re hiring at Toys ‘R’ Us or Chuck E. Cheese . . .

UPDATE II: Longtime commenter Diana Deeley complained about the use of the photo; so I deleted it. Of course, Diana didn’t see how Kentucky’s Most Famous Atheist School Teacher™ was deliberately taunting Christians — “superstitious,” he said to one — and personally attacking Jeanette Runyon, when he imagined he might conduct himself in such a haughty manner with impunity.

I may have more to say later, but for now am pleased to note the accuracy of my prophecy: Renfrow and his fellow atheists are now whining like little bitches, just as I predicted.

 

184 comments

  3. Good grief. Well, I suspect that he is not the only employee in the school district who does not understand the law, or is choosing to ignore it because of the “all teenagers do it” excuse. A sh*t storm may be in order to get the school district to re-train everyone.

  5. Ah, happily engaged and freshly unemployed. Won’t it be a radiant wedding?
    But how will they afford a honeymoon without his lavish teaching salary?

  8. I’ll not repeat any of comments I’ve made to similar posts on similar topics. I only observe, yet again, that the law draws “bright lines” in numerous circumstances. Funny, how we never hear about getting rid of minimum ages for drivers, to name one. Indeed, some people drove old trucks and tractors around the farm at age 12, and maybe-*cough*–had occasion to drive on public roads, as well.

  10. You are correct. “Dating” as commonly understood by most people, does not include sexual intercourse. However, there are other facts which, when added to that, may reach the level of “reasonable cause.”

  11. I agree, but then I didn’t say it was, just outlined the correct standard. Of course, “dating” these days is often a euphemism for having sex. See, e.g., #FreeKate.

  12. I had a high school gym teacher who also thought 16 wasn’t a young enough age for consent to be allowed. He also ended up unemployed, after “positively affecting the life” of a 15 year old girl, in the mens locker room.

    Some schools still have standards, I guess. A small positive sign.

  13. I just reviewed his Linked In profile, and I see multiple job transitions and career changes over extremely short periods of time. Make of that what you will.

    His recent departure may or may not be relevant to his comments on Twitter, however I can’t see them helping an already aggravated supervisor.

  14. Look, everybody knows it happens — kids 14 or 15 having sex with young adults 18 or 19 — and I hesitate to say that all of the older partners in such relationships are predators who should be branded for life with a Sex Offender label.

    Nevertheless, you can’t start smudging up the lines because of the alleged unfairness of an “arbitrary” age standard. If you start doing that, you are in essence arguing that statutory rape laws are invalid because, no matter what age is set as the minimum age for legal consent, there will always be someone who is just this much outside the boundaries of the law, pleading that what they did wasn’t actually a crime. And once you start granting leniency in a few such “grey area” cases, eventually leniency will become the expected norm, so that when you encounter some especially grievous case, that offender will claim they are being unfairly prosecuted.

    Best to trust ordinary prosecutorial discretion (they don’t have to seek the maximum penalty in every case) and to advocate obedience to the law, rather than to make arguments that risk exposing young kids to exploitation.

  15. He seems to be arrogant and opinionated, but that describes a lot of people, possibly even me. Perhaps he has some underlying emotional issues.

  16. I had to listen to him all the way to Legion Field one night, Bama couldn’t win he lamented. It was the third Saturday in October and he was so wrong. I don’t know that I’ve ever seen him have a better time.

  17. Our schools are ‘gun free & drug free. ‘ Let’s add pervert free. And the oped in the Post proposing we give teachers a pass on pedophilia. Why not the school bus drivers, too?

    Are you frigging kidding me!

    And adults who stick up for kids are haters. Get out of here with that crap.

  19. One of the problems is the term, “age of consent,” which is, in fact, a misnomer and only sidetracks arguments into an area where the useful idiots get vexed and the “professional perverts” rub their hands with glee. In reality, we are talking about legal disability which society has determined to be the status of certain individuals who, by definition, should not be accountable for their actions. More importantly, in means their PARENTS are in absolute control. For minors, legal disability for certain things is removed slowly, until age 21, where a person is an adult for all things. What the NAMBLA people want is to remove parental control, and the useful idiots, like the person discussed in this post are being gladly led along.

  21. I’m a mandated reporter as well. And, I’ve worked in schools before. Staff knows “who is doing who.” Yes, and it’s “reasonable cause.” If you don’t make the report, you career is toast.

    And, #FreeKate zealots have accused the basketball coach of all sorts of things for reporting the abuse.

  22. Firstly, no one I have read has advocated that high school seniors be prosecuted for having sex with high school freshmen (his argument). We have advocated that legal adults be prosecuted for having sex with legal minors. There is no grey area as the law pretty well states who is a legal adult and who is a legal minor. My wife and I successfully brought up two girls and two boys to adulthood and on the occasion of their 18th birthdays I had the “things you can no longer do and get away with it” lecture. For the boy…this topic are was well and thoroughly covered. Thankfully, both of my boys thought the idea of having anything to do with a 14 yr old girl was creepy.

  23. It’s the start of the slippery slope. Today, it’s “peers” that are in “wuv.” Five years from now, it’s an “emerging awareness” that 10 year-olds are mature enough to consent. Then, at some point, it becomes all about “why should we place limits on love?”

  24. Where I’m from teachers have a ethics clause. A local teacher received a reprimand after a student spotted her at the beach in a thong during summer break.

  27. If it did, I’d be owed refunds on a lot of dinners and probably have lost a few friends. Can’t spare them.

  29. This teacher must be a real bow-wow… Rather like the only women who wear Spandex are those who shouldn’t wear Spandex, maybe?

  31. Methinks the word “peer” does not mean what they want it to mean. Following their logic, in a K-8 school, a five year old is a “peer” to a 14 year old.

  32. Hasn’t he reversed the situation in his so called argument.

    “If a high school senior can legally have sex with his/her partner today but not tomorrow the problem is the law.”

    It certainly would be a problematic law, but that isn’t the situation. It’s not about something becoming illegal as you age. Or am I missing something?

Comments are closed.