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I am a Third Order Franciscan of the Province of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus.

Tuesday, November 22, 2005

Dangerous precedents

A 25 year old Florida teacher has pled guilty to having intercourse multiple times with one of that teacher's 14 year old students and yet still did not receive any jail time.

There were a couple of factors about the decision which raise serious questions of justice -

1. Did the teacher receive a lesser sentence because she was a woman and the victim was a 14 year old boy? I ask because in Wisconsin a male teacher found guilty of having intercourse with a 15 year old female student was sentenced to 11 years in prison. A male teacher found guilty of solicitating, but not engaging in sex, with a fifteen year old girl in New York was sentenced to up to 4 years in prison. I do not think that the men should receive lighter sentences, rather that the sentence for Debra Lafave seems to be far too light.

2. To what degree did the defense attorney's claim that, "to place an attractive young woman in that kind of hell hole is like putting a piece of raw meat in with the lions" affect the plea and are we going to establish now one set of penalties for "attractive people" and a second set for those who are "not so attractive"?

1 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Another judge in Albany NY ruled yesterday that a 41 year old woman teacher, who is very attractive, was really the 'victim' - not the multiple teen boys she *lined up* for sex outside her bedroom. Her four children were often there in the house while the boys waited their turn. She was caught by police in her car while busy with another boy.

She is not a predator, no, and its not her fault, this judge says. Her victims took advantage of her 'low self esteem'. Classic, blame the victims mentality (maybe its difficult for a male judge to think that a teen boy having intercourse with a 'hot' female teacher is abuse?).

Now, if this were a male teacher there would be no end to the venom in the media unleashed upon him!

The legal world is so, so tragically twisted!

4:44 PM  

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