So Novotny in the film was luckier.
I think unreliable narration and the sense that a lot of the characters are deceiving others and themselves confuses the issue.
Tracy seems to have got into a groove of seeking to manipulate older men, culminating in getting to be an assistant to a Congressman
when McAllister sees her at the end and throws a drink at the car
. In the real-life case you allude to, though, was the 14-year-old the hyperactive, ambitious "I want to run everything" character that Tracy is in the film? Because that, along with other aspects of the film, does complicate judgments.
Incidentally, this is one of the reasons I like this film and it provides material for discussion. I think it was among the best US films of the end of the 20th century.
"Chicken soup - with a beep straw."

Not an easy question to answer. There is a lot of unreliable narration in this film, so it is hard to be sure who was the instigator, though as she is a minor Novotny would be considered legally responsible, not Tracy.
Oh I don't think there's ANY ambiguity about it Dave was the seducer.
The way he was flattering her over pizza played like classic predatory "grooming."
Even if Tracy had made the first "move" by kissing him, it'd only be after he set the stage.
I view him as both legally AND morally responsible, in other words, and I see Dave as the instigator.
But then again I may be biased - my wife's high school friend's husband did something similar. At age 45 he spent a LOT of time with a 14-yr old before school, "teaching" her stuff that eventually included "teaching" her about sex.
I actually liked the guy, but I could easily see how he could've steered their relationship the way Dave seems to do in this movie.
Anyway, he's still in jail.

Not an easy question to answer. There is a lot of unreliable narration in this film, so it is hard to be sure who was the instigator, though as she is a minor Novotny would be considered legally responsible, not Tracy.
"Chicken soup - with a beep straw."

daddy issues
so many movies, so little time

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This might shock you, but some girls actually enjoy sex in a relationship

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I disagree with a lot of you guys who think that it was a calculated move on her part.
She says near the end, "I wonder what happened to him. I wonder if he ever finished his novel."
She had real feelings for him, but they didn't stretch as far as his feelings for her.
As far as her mother discovering the note, I think that it's probable that it was a rare slip by Tracy- she left it out in the open or something. I don't even think that this incident was calculated.

Do you think that Tracy had no choice but to sleep with the teacher? Sure she was manipulated but she's smart enough to know that her actions have consequences.

Why would I be frustrated by a predator suffering while the innocent victim has a stainless reputation?

It was just that the teacher took advantage of how alienated she was by telling her what she wanted to hear so that he could get what he wanted sexually. She fell rey to an obvious trap, a trap made obvious by the insincerity of the narration, which Payne uses to highlight the hypocrisy of the characters. However, it was very convenient for her that the teacher was fired quietly so that their affair couldn't ruin her campaign, and I'm sure both Tracy and her mother knew this and used this. While Tracy was taken advantage of, it doesn't mean that we can't be frustrated at her naivety and how after this guy's life is ruined she goes on with a stainless reputation. Every character in the movie is a hypocrite.

she didn't try to get him fired, she liked him, and he molested her.

Tracy's personality is such that I doubt she could get emotionally close with a bunch of average kids. The idea of it may intrigue her, but the reality would turn her off. She's also highly intelligent. I've had the pleasure and the pain of being around some highly intelligent folks. They admitted they're highly manipulative because everybody deserves a hobby.

Despite her ambition, it's made pretty clear that Tracy is lonely and struggling to cope. Also she denies having daddy issues, but the denial makes it clear that she does.

McAllister uses Tracy as a scapegoat to his own crumbling life. He refuses to take responsibility for everything.
True, and what's scary is that so many posters agree with McAllister.

McAllister continually treats Tracy as the villain, even while sexualizing her for himself. She had no interest in McAllister but the movie is mostly from McAllister's unreliable narrative. Pay attention to show and tell through the whole movie he tells Dave that having sex with her is wrong and he also fantasizes about having sex.
Tracy was a 16 year old girl who was looking for support from an older, trusted adult. That older trusted adult advised her that sex was part of that familiar relationship. While it wasn't aggressive rape, it was probably a situation where she felt that the only way to keep this non-sexual supportive relationship (the only relationship in her life) was to engage the a sexual aspect.
But the point is that none of that matters because Dave made the conscious choice to have sex with his student. He wasn't seduced - in fact, it was the other way around. Dave's apparent "We're so in love!" is an example that he was also desperately grasping on to a relationship or even just the view of McAllister of his friend as pathetic.
McAllister uses Tracy as a scapegoat to his own crumbling life. He refuses to take responsibility for everything.

Where does McAllister say it was Tracy's fault? I think there's a scene or two where it pretty well establishes McAllister told Dave he was wrong and he'd crossed the line and so on. That doesn't change the fact that he still likes Dave as a friend, doesn't like Tracy and her phony visage she puts on for people, and maybe gets a certain satisfaction in just knowing a skeleton in her closet that she would not want anyone else to know.

I've only seen this movie once and it was at least a decade ago, so the details remain hazy. But the long-term impression I've had of Tracy was a sociopathic level of manipulative behavior.
Even at the beginning of the movie (I found it on Amazon Instant and have started watching it again), she admits joining student government committees only if she could be in charge. The yearbook photos of her in activities show her in the center of the group, presumably in a leadership role, and she has a lead role in the school play.
While you could categorize this as the ambition of a talented student, it seems more akin to the obsession of a person with at least narcissistic tendencies if not other borderline sociopathic tendencies. She also admits to having no close friends which she attributes to being busy, but this could just be because she lacks empathy and can't form lasting relationships easily, another hallmark of sociopathy.
There's no question that it was unethical and immoral for her married teachers to have sex with her. That being said, it's an open question if sleeping with teacher was the result of her being manipulated by an adult or the result of her narcissistic personality finding the intimate attention of a teacher to be just another way to find herself at the center of attention.
My guess is that even women with sociopathic behavioral tendencies have to learn how sexuality can be used as a tool of manipulation. To me, her sleeping with teachers was more about her "growth" as a sociopathic personality, not her victimhood. She even says at one point during the heated conversation with Broderick's character that if the first teacher hadn't gotten so mushy, everything would have been fine.

Very well put. It was a great illustration of her character that she quickly absolved herself of any wrong doing in any situation, even though she wasn't so naive as to think it was okay to sleep with one of her married teachers. It was very similar to her casually allowing Tammy to take the blame for the poster incident.

It is more nuanced than that. First, this country has a split-personality disorder concerning sexual mores. Not all states have an age of consent at 18. But even 16 or 17 is higher than when most become sexually active. Compare the age of consent laws in Europe for example. In this day and age, particularly with such jailbait phenomena as Britney spears or Myley Cyrus (or the fact that many adolescent young women look celebreity pariahs like the Karadashians or Paris Hilton as role modes, it is absurd to suggest that a sophomore or junior in high school is a "child." This is particurlaly so given the rampant promiscuity that abides in young people now more than ever.
It is true that a teacher has a position of authority, which makes it different than the sort of debacle Romeo and Juliet laws are designed to address. It is that authority dimension which made the Monica Lewinsky scandal so despicable.
In any case, it is possible to condemn both parties involved. Novotny ought not be lechering after his own studentsmost particularly because he took marital vows. But Tracy is not free from blame either. And the manner in which she non-chalantly coasts by in the aftermath, even cooly deleting his face from yearbook photos, shows precisely the sort of person we are dealing with.
I would split culpability to between 60 percent to two thirds on Novotny. However, Flick knew what she was doing.

The real danger is the Victim/Perp false dichotomy. Both share responsibility. But the teacher should be the one who bears almost all of it.

So effing creepy how many posters want to minimize and normalize Novotny's behavior. GROSS. Tracy was a victim.

I redirect you to the post I wrote earlier. Statutory rape depends on the jurisdiction. I believe something like 11 states have the age set at 18, which is quite ridiculous as a junior (or even senior) in high school is NOT a child.
Most European countries have an age of consent between 14-16.
What makes Novotny's actions most questionable, aside from his marital vows, is the position of authority he has over her as a teacher, similar I might add to the position that Bill Clinton had over Monica Lewinsky.
I am somewhat conflicted about such bright line rules because there may be some instances where a romance between a superior and insubordinate is not nefarious, as we can more readily see in a professor student or boss employee scenario.
To be sure Novotny is hardly admirable in his actions. But what is untenable to me is the notion that Tracey Flick was somehow blameless.

I disagree she couldn't consent either because of her age of 16-17 or because of his position as a teacher at the school. I'm not talking about the law. If she was 17 it wasn't even against the law because that's the age of consent in Nebraska. Since he was merely fired and not arrested that is my guess.
I find no "fault" in the situation at all though I would also fired the teacher.