Mary Kay Letourneau and Her Student: Inside the Relationship That Shocked a Nation

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For years, Mary Kay Letourneau and her former student Vili Fualaau professed their love for each other — even while she was in prison for raping him when he was a boy

As a teacher, Mary Kay Letourneau was praised as someone who could see things through the eyes of a child. But with 1997’s revelation that she had raped one of her students, a 12-year-old boy, that previous observation took on a darker tone.

“The incident was a late night, and it didn’t stop with a kiss,” Letourneau recounted in a 2015 sit-down interview with Barbara Walters on 20/20. “And I thought that it would, and it didn’t.”

The story of Letourneau’s sexual abuse of her former student drew more than just ire in the millions who watched her fall from grace play out in the media, and even serving more than seven years behind bars would not thwart her scandalous pursuit of love.

Here’s everything to know about the events that led up to and followed Mary Kay Letourneau’s infamous rape case.

September 1991: Teacher Mary Kay Letourneau meets Vili Fualaau in second-grade class

AP PHOTO/SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER

Letourneau first met the boy she would eventually sexually abuse, later identified as Vili Fualaau, when he was her second-grade student in suburban Seattle. “There was a respect, an insight, a spirit, an understanding between us that grew over time,” she told The Seattle Times in July 1997. “It was the kind of feeling you have with a brother or sister — a feeling that they’re part of your life forever.”

Fall 1995: Mary Kay Letourneau’s obsession with Vili Fualaau deepens

JOHN FROSCHAUER/AP

Letourneau formed a close relationship with Fualaau when he was a second-grader who showed remarkable artistic ability that she delighted in cultivating. But she later said that — at first — there was nothing illicit about her feelings. “I didn’t know what it meant,” she said. “I felt that one day he might marry my daughter.”

Over the next several years, Letourneau kept in touch with the child. She bought him art supplies, took him to museums and encouraged him to develop his talent for poetry.

Then, starting in the fall of 1995, when Letourneau had the child in her sixth-grade class, she suffered a series of emotional jolts. Her marriage was in trouble, and in January 1996, Letourneau experienced a miscarriage that left her on the brink of a breakdown.

She apparently took solace in her connection with Fualaau.

source: people.com