Mary Kay Letourneau Under Fire After Announcing Plans To Return To Teaching

Mary Kay Letourneau set off controversy when she carried on an affair with a 13-year-old student that led to a seven-year prison sentence for child rape, but now the 53-year-old is making waves again by announcing her desire to return to reaching.

Letourneau was released from prison and went on to marry the boy, Vili Fualaau, in 2005. Now, as the couple approaches their 10-year wedding anniversary, Letourneau said she wants to move on from the controversy and return to a normal life — one that includes teaching children again.

In an interview with Barbara Walters, Letourneau said she wants to be taken off the sex offender registry.

“Recently I said, ‘It’s been 10 years, why don’t I lift that?'” she told Walters. “There’s a process, there’s a form, you take it to court and then they grant it if it looks like it should be granted.”

Because she remains a registered sex offender, Letourneau was unable to visit her sick teenage daughter.

But there is another reason she wants her name off the registry. Mary Kay Letourneau said she hopes to one day return to teaching.

Letourneau said she has done some teaching work since being released from prison.

“I have taught since then. I have a piano student and I taught at one of the colleges. I taught math,” she explained.

She and her now-husband have been living a quiet life in Seattle where she works as a legal assistant and he as a DJ under the name DJ Headline. They were married in a winery in Washington before 250 guests, including Letourneau’s two children from her first marriage.

But despite her attempts to live a quiet and normal life, many remain outraged by both the relationship and Letourneau’s plans to teach again. Many commenters said Letourneau should be nowhere near a classroom and is continuing to do harm by promoting a relationship that began as rape.

“OMG, he was a child,” wrote Anne Bretts. “If a middle-aged man had left his family to get a 13-year-old girl pregnant and then married her, we would be horrified. And to parade themselves and all the children on television is just disgusting.”

It is not clear if Mary Kay Letourneau would be allowed to return to teaching, even if she wanted to. Despite her protests she remains a registered sex offender, legal experts say it is unlikely to change.

[Image via KOMO News]