The Floyd County High School student approached me while I was photographing a football game on Friday.

“Excuse me,” she said. “Are you the one who wrote the story in the paper about Mr. Farmer?”

“Yes.”

“Why did you have to make such a big deal over it?”

“Excuse me?”

“I mean, it’s not like it was rape or anything like that.”

Dan Farmer, a Floyd Elementary School teacher and a girls softball coach at the high school, resigned from both jobs after being charged with contributing to the sexual delinqency of a minor: Having consensual sex with a 15-year-old student at the high school

I tried to explain to the student that the married school teacher was charged with having sex with a 15-year-old.

“So?” She seemed unconcerned about the consequences.

“So it’s against the law.”

“Then the law is stupid. It’s not like its something that hasn’t happened before. It happens a lot.”

When I pressed her for details she walked away. I finished shooting the game but the conversation haunted me. Was this young girl’s feelings typical of students in high school today or was she an exception to the rule?

I don’t know the answer to that but the fact that she, and possibly others, may feel that a teacher having sexual relations with a student is “no big deal” or that it “happens a lot” scares the hell out of me.