The initial details of this scandal emerged in the year 1996 from the northwestern American state of Seattle and began to be revealed to the world.
Mary Letourneau, a 34-year-old teacher at Shorewood Elementary School in Boren Township, was romantically involved with Willie Folau, a 12-year-old student. And more than that, she had become pregnant as a result of a romantic relationship with a young student.
After Marie Letourneau’s arrest by the police, the news quickly spread from local to national and international press due to the unusual and illegal nature of her relationship with a young student.
Mary, 34, was married, had four children, and was considered a highly competent teacher at Boren School.
Marie Letourneau has always maintained that she did not believe that having an affair with one of her students was illegal. According to him, he established this relationship at the request of his student Willie Folau.
The authorities did not believe the teacher and sent him to jail for rape. A daughter was born to the school teacher after some time. And then another child was born as a result of the young student’s relationship with his teacher.
Inspired by the couple’s story, Netflix has made a new movie, Secrets of a Scandal, starring Julianne Moore and Natalie Portman. The film will release in January 2024.
The beginning of the relationship
Marie Letourneau and Wally Folau first met in 1991. He was a student at Valley Elementary School at that time and was only eight years old. Wally had quite an interesting family background as his father had five marriages and had a total of 17 siblings.
In the days following their first meeting, Marie Letourneau kept in touch with Wally and continued to teach and train him at school.
Wally Folau says the story really begins in 1996, when he was 12 years old and his teacher was 34 years old. Willie Folau made a bet with one of his cousins that he would win over his teacher.
At this year’s summer camp, Wally Folau started calling his teacher his ‘girlfriend’.
Mary Letourneau said in an interview that there was a moment when she felt Willie Folau loved her. According to Marie, this feeling frightened her.
After some time, both of them started exchanging love letters. And so soon the romantic relationship was established between the two.
They wanted to keep their relationship a secret but there came a time when it was not in their power to do so.
In June 1996, a police officer patrolling a local amusement park spotted a suspicious vehicle parked there. When the police officer approached the suspicious vehicle, it was found that Willie and Mary were in the vehicle.
At that point, Mary Letourneau told the police officer that she was a teacher at a local school and that she had students with her and that there was nothing wrong. However, the policeman found the matter suspicious and took the two to the police station, where the boy’s mother, Vali, was also called.
The mother told the police that she had no problem with her son being with his mother.
The two managed to keep their relationship a secret until sometime after the incident. Wali Folau, meanwhile, kept coming back and forth to the house where his teacher lived with her husband and four children.
However, rumors soon started spreading among the locals that Teacher Mary had an affair and sexual relations with the same student and that she had also become pregnant as a result of these relations.
After these rumors spread in early 1997, Marie Letourneau’s husband found evidence that confirmed the teacher-student relationship.
After the confirmation of these relations, her husband left their house and in the meantime someone filed a formal complaint about the matter with the school administration.
Teacher’s decision
In March 1997, Marie was arrested and charged with raping an underage boy. A few days after her arrest, her pregnancy was also confirmed.
According to his lawyer, his client (Mary) did not understand that the relationship he had with his underage student was illegal.
Her lawyer further said that ‘She (Mary) told me that she was in love with the student and that the student wanted to have a relationship with her (i.e. it was not a forced relationship).’ said that ‘Mary asked me how can love be a crime?’
His lawyer said, “I was also of the same opinion that he did not commit any crime.”
Despite being a serious crime like rape, Mary agreed to a plea deal with the prosecution, in exchange for which she pleaded guilty but received a lesser sentence under the plea deal.
Addressing the judge at a hearing, he said, “My Lord, I have done something that I had no moral or legal right to do.” It was wrong and I apologise.’
He further told the judge while crying that this will not happen again. Please help me, help us.
Mary Letourneau was sentenced to six months in prison.
When he was sentenced, his daughter Audrey had already been born as a result of a pregnancy caused by his relationship with Wally. Because of her newborn daughter, she was released after only three months, but the condition was imposed that she would not be related to the valley after her release, but she could not fulfill this condition.
A few days after the release, a police officer again saw a car with black windows at a recreation area. On being searched, he again found Wally and Mary, after which Mary was arrested again.
This time, the judge wrote in his ruling that a few days after his release, Mary deliberately ignored the conditions and met the younger student again. This time the court did not give him any concession, on which he was sentenced to seven and a half years in prison.
Mary was pregnant again when she was sentenced. A second daughter was born to him in prison as a result of his relationship with Wally Folau.
Sad ending
With Mary Letourneau in prison, Wally Folau raised his two daughters with the help of his mother (the girls’ grandmother) and also had relationships with other women.
But when Mary was released from prison, she resumed her relationship with Wally and in 2005, when Wally reached puberty, they got married.
Being a teenage father was tough for Wally though. However, he wanted both parents of his daughters to live in the same house. According to him, he did this for his daughters.
After 12 years of marriage, Willie Folau separated from Marie in 2017. Even after that they continued to be together for some time.
The following year, 2018, Marie Letourneau was diagnosed with colon cancer. The disease spread rapidly and in the year 2020 he died due to this disease. He was 58 years old at that time.