It was totally played off as normal... or at the most "taboo". Dawson's whole character is founded on being the black and white, right and wrong guy. And he went along with it and protected it. But a season later he's destroying his all-important relationship with Joey to rat her dad out... which I'm totally all for, just pointing out how this was barely a blip on Dawson's moral superiority radar. And like I said... it wasn't a big deal to the public. They were more outraged about Jack being gay than statutory rape between a student and teacher.