Ryan,
You showed your maturity by waiting until she was of LEGAL age. The laws are not always cool, but they are LAWS. Not suggestions.
The LAW does not say "It is better not to have sexual relations with persons under the age of 18." It says that it is ILLEGAL to have sexual relations with a person under the age of 18 if you are 18 or older.
As in NOT LEGAL to do so.
Now, I believe (not everyone does) that the reason female teachers get lighter punishments is that a female forcing herself onto a MALE student is not really "forcing" and it is obvious. I mean, the kid gets hard...right? Well....It's a bit different with a girl. If a male teacher forces himself onto a female student, how are we to know whether she was coerced? How are we to know if he promised that he would give her A's if she gave him a hummer or two? We don't...Also, girls are easier to manipulate than boys are. Immagine an "ugly" looking female teacher approaching a boy who is getting a C in her class and saying "If you have sex with me, I'll give you an A." Then immagine an ugly MALE teacher making the same promis to a girl. Well....he will sweet talk and try his hardest to make it happen. And he will use coersion to accomplish his goal. He may even tell her that if she doesn't do it, he'll tell her parents that she approached him. Now he is threatening her. Now, girls don't want to be known as "sluts", so they will do what is necissary to keep their reputaion and if that means giving the ugly teacher a hummer and getting an A in a class, then they will likely do it. The boy on the other hand will simply say yeah, whatever. Tell my parents that I approached you for sex. Everyone in the school will think he's "The Man" and/or that he didn't do it. They would never believe it. I mean, grown women just don't do that sort of thing.....do they? LOL Obvoiously they do as Mary Kay LeTourneau and Deborah LaFave have shown and proven. But public opinion and perception is that they don't do that sort of thing. Thats why Women are not punished as harshly as men who commit the same basic crime.
* The preceeding is MY opinion only and should not be construed as my personal experience. Sad world we live in when we have to protect ourselves this way.
