By Wendy Anders

Yesterday the Costa Rican daily, La Nación reported that the Ministry of Public Education (MEP) has opened a disciplinary investigation against a 40-year-old female teacher named Rojas at the Technical Professional High School in San Isidro de El General, Pérez Zeledón, in southern Costa Rica, after she married a 15-year-old student of hers on July 4.

La Nación confirmed the marriage in the civil registry, but Rojas refused to comment on the situation to the paper, saying she wouldn’t discuss her personal life.

Also in the civil registry are records of Rojas’ previous three marriage and her three adolescent children.

Luis Guillermo Chinchilla, a registry official explained to La Nación that marriages involving youth between 15 and 18 years of age must have the written permission of one parent or guardian, and that marriage in youth under the age of 15 is prohibited.

Chinchilla also said that the student’s mother gave him permission to marry Rojas.

In Costa Rica, 2015 data from the civil registry shows 19 marriages between an underage male with a woman over the age of 18; and 295 marriages of women between 15 and 18 with an adult male.

The MEP is in a flurry of activity as they deal with the situation, and are deciding whether to re-locate or to suspend Rojas while the investigation is underway, said Pablo Zúñiga, advisor to Minister Sonia Marta Mora, to La Nación.

Minister Mora ordered an exhaustive investigation to be undertaken by the head of the MEP’s disciplinary regime in order to determine what responsibilities fall to the 40-year-old Rojas in this case, and what fall to the Pérez Zeledón high school’s administrators, according to La Nación.

In light of this occurrence, MEP officials reiterated their support for pending legislation on sexual relations with minors being discussed by the country’s legislators (Law 19,337) which would impose criminal charges on a person who has sexual relations with someone between the ages of 15 and 18 if they are five or more years older than the minor, reported La Nación.